Wilderness Mosaic
Art quilt
18”h x 18”w

Charlotte Bird

created in response to Tundra Tapestry
composed by Christina Rusnak

Botanist Joan Foote taught me how to identify plants with a taxonomic key. Since then, I have spent hours on hands and knees with the likes of sundew, lichens and moonwort. Lately, I have become acquainted with tundra’s true tapestry, the fungal mycelia that form a network in the five inches of active soil, distribute moisture and energy, and push up fruiting bodies we call mushrooms. Miles of mycelia live under a single square yard of tundra. The bass clarinet is the voice of the mycelia: beneath everything, supporting everything. The flute and bass flute express the rarities and surprises. There is order, contrast, and conflict, all without pattern. The colors of the tundra and of the music are abstract.