SCULPTURE
All sculptural works are grown from an unseeded mycelium and clay and up-cycled materials.
The Floating Forest Project
Initiated in 2023 and is currently in progress
Detail of: "Floating Forest”
Through a sustainable practice, extinct flora and fauna are reanimated in an installation grown from mycelium come to life in a forest of natural materials through textures using mycelium, clay the story of lost species is reimagined in Floating Forest.
THE TRIBUTE
2023
This work was on view with the Minnetrista Museum and Gardens, Muncie, Indiana, 2023-2024.
The Tribute: Deer Medicine, 2023. 22 x 16 x 15 in., housed in a bio-plexi observation box, grown from unseeded mycelium, details in clay, mica minerals,and foraged botanical preserved flowers, fossils and feathers.
It was a swell and web, a shared breath, a shared silence. Engaged and present with each other, the young male deer and I shared the moment. He stood at the edge of my yard, nibbling on low hanging tree leaves. I felt a deep sense of calm, the feeling of being in the presence of greatness. The universe stared back at me. The water, wild, and wilderness are a sanctuary for us all. I savored my time with this sentient being on my birthday. I looked away and back; he was gone. A rattling tree slowing its wave as the deer passed through. A moment later, I ran to the front of my home to see him in my neighbor’s yard, nibbling. I sensed something was wrong. As I turned to walk away, I heard an awful cry. A car roared out of nowhere and killed this little boy. His exit on this earth was sudden, a little death which made a heavy and large impact on my soul.
I stood over him and looked into his vacant eyes which were alive a moment before. His body was broken. His thin legs and hoofs were bent in ways that prevented him from ever standing again. Blood came out of his ear. I cannot remove the moment of loss from my mind. It was my birthday. My mother-in-law put her arms around me. I felt such a loss. Deep inside, I know that every life is worthy to live free in this spaceship we call home on Earth.
Our shared look had ripened my vision. I felt a presence of something greater. I had reached the limits of my longing and kept going to decontextualize these complicated emotions. I spent a month growing him back to life. Through mycelium, I shared his spirit and grew his bust as a tribute to nature’s reminder that life is equanimous, and as humans we should see that all animals we share space with should be treated as our neighbors. He is now my angel. Though his young life ended quickly, he left an imprint on me and inspired this sculpture to life. I do not want to surrender to making more roads, putting up fences, and keeping Earth’s children out. He will never leave me, and I will always remember him. He was my birthday gift that year.
Read the interview with Arrowmont.
Read details about the making of
GATEKEEPERS
2020-2023
Image: Gatekeepers, exhibited with Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN, 2023.
The Gate is 5 feet x 4.5 feet x 28 inches
The Gatekeepers Project grew out of my firsthand experience surviving the 2021 Caldor Fire in Northern California. In the aftermath of such devastation, it becomes painfully clear how completely a disaster can transform an entire community. I consider myself an artist of solutions, and this project is my response to what unfolded around me during that year. Working with mycelium is both restorative and regenerative. As it dries, it cleans the air. This plant-based material holds extraordinary potential and has driven innovation for more than a decade across industries—from leather alternatives to food, packaging, and construction. The mycelium substrate I use, produced by Ecovative and Grow.bio, replaces toxic resins, oil paints, terpenoids, and other harmful chemicals. Fully biodegradable outdoors, it can also endure indefinitely in cool, stable indoor environments. The Gate measures five feet by four-and-a-half feet by twenty-eight inches and has been grown into an archway—an entry point into a generous, magical kingdom. I call this archway The Gate. Those who protect our wild lands and wildlife, are the gatekeepers. The piece is grown entirely from mycelium, the same living substrate that produces mushrooms.
The Gatekeepers Project required more than 2,000 hours of cultivation, three years of development across four cities, 260 pounds of mycelium, and over 2,000 seashells. Working with a living material is deeply empowering. Experiencing climate change firsthand is transformative; the helplessness it can evoke is deeply saddening. This work is my way of advocating for a healthier world—creating material solutions that respond to the urgency of environmental stewardship. Through this process, I aim to contribute to the healing of both community and planet. In embracing the natural world and its generous kingdoms, I have found allies. The work I co-create with nature is meant to serve humanity, inspire young people to become the next generation of gatekeepers, and encourage others to create with healthier materials. I created this project so others could experience that same sense of wonder and recognize that sustainability, conservation, and preservation must be treated as urgent priorities. Bio art raises awareness of the challenges communities face amid a growing climate crisis. By sharing my work, I actively participate in developing solutions. Encouraging young people to engage with local gardens, conservation organizations, and botanical institutions can spark the first steps toward stewardship. As Jane Goodall reminds us in Hope, every action matters.
This body of work was partially funded by the Tennessee Arts Commission. Gatekeepers was selected for the group exhibition Degrees of Commitment: Climate, Ecosystems, and Society at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, in 2023. It was also featured at the University of Applied Sciences’ Captcha Design Festival in Mannheim, Germany, and received second place in the Eco-Heroes contest organized by the City of Bloomington’s Environmental Commission in 2023. The work has been published in outlets including The Ecological Citizen. The Gatekeepers remained on the Arrowmont campus until it was ultimately returned to the earth to decompose.
THE WELL-WITHIN
2020-2021
The Caldor Fire burned 221,835 acres across the Eldorado National Forest and surrounding regions of the Sierra Nevada in El Dorado, Amador, and Alpine Counties during the 2021 California wildfire season. In the fire, I lost several paintings. While the loss of artwork was painful, it cannot compare to losing a home or witnessing the accelerating impacts of climate change. That same year, I also lost my father to complications from Covid-19. When something is taken from us—or when we lose someone we love—it is natural to feel a profound emptiness. Through years of Dharma practice, I have learned that healing begins from within.
Inspired by fire, The Well Within (22" W × 27" H) was grown from unseeded mycelium over the course of 23 days—554 hours. The work is composed of 43 bricks, 9 panels, and numerous species of seashells. I envisioned it as a community project: a symbolic act of rebuilding together, one brick at a time. To paraphrase Charles Darwin in On the Origin of Species (1859), it is through cooperation and compassion that communities survive and ultimately thrive.
I use mycelium as both material and message—the message is embedded in the medium itself. Mycelium-based construction offers a meaningful way to reduce our carbon footprint and lessen dependence on fossil fuels. It is a sustainable, living resource. A 2022 National Geographic article highlights how mushrooms are inspiring engineers to imagine a more sustainable future. In a recent conversation on the Mushroom Revival podcast, U.K. biologist Merlin Sheldrake noted that mycelium, which has existed on Earth for more than 10,000 years, shares 50 percent of human DNA.
The next time you pick up a mushroom, pause to consider what lies beneath. The mushroom is only the fruit of a vastly larger organism. Mycelium forms expansive fungal networks woven through the soil beneath every step we take—networks that have held the planet together since the beginning of time.
All my mycelium-based works are grown using Ecovative™ Technology.
© Maria Schechter All Rights 2025.