Drink & Draw [VIRTUAL]: Mushroom Self-Portraits

Guest Artist: Hannah Hirsekorn

If you were a mushroom would you be… poisonous? delicious? cunning? parasitic?
Would you have frilly gills underneath you? wear a classic cap? grow tubers for your hands and feet?
What animals and plants would be your best friends? 

Hannah Hirsekorn, an interspecies social practice artist, will take us on a journey of self-portraiture inspired by the weird and wonderful world of mushrooms. She will dazzle us with the many different shapes, patterns, functions, and symbiotic relationships that mushrooms have developed in the seedy underbelly of nature, in order to turn the world’s waste into amazing new life. We will embody the fungal qualities we most identify with through movement and visualizations that guide our drawings, sculptures, or collages of ourselves as mushrooms.

Maybe you grow slowly and quietly on a living tree, or shoot up flamboyantly from a rotting log. Maybe you are the class clown “puffball” mushroom, releasing your spores in a little fart cloud! Or do you see yourself being lovingly tended by a colony of ant farmers? (Fun Fact: Hannah draws herself as a Dolly Parton “honey” mushroom decorated with rhinestones.) In addition to creating a most unexpected self-portrait, you will also develop a new appreciation for these strange and inspiring creatures, who resemble animals and people as much as plants.

Suggested Materials:

  • your favorite drawing or painting supplies
  • Sculpee or other modeling clay
  • collage materials (pictures of mushrooms are a plus!)
  • a real mushroom to dress up or decorate

Zoom Meeting ID: 974 8784 8818

Drink & Draw [VIRTUAL] is a low-key drop-in social workshop devoted to staying creative from home. There are no pretensions and newcomers are always welcome, so invite your friends to join! Each Drink & Draw [Virtual] features a new guest artist and a new theme or project that uses pencil, paper, and everyday household supplies. Don’t have a sketchbook? Hosts will help you improvise. Find us on Zoom, a free app for your phone or computer. And of course: BYOB! 

Love the experience? Pitch in to our Venmo Tip Jar (@spudnikpress) to directly support the featured artist and Spudnik Press Cooperative.