“I only hope that we don’t lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse.” –Walt Disney
I’ll mince not words here, Orlando artist Doug Rhodehamel is one of my favorite people. Maybe it’s not fair to rate people, but on a scale from “Sucks” to “Eartha Kitt,” Doug ranks up there with Eartha Kitt in my book. Part of what I like about him is that he doesn’t worry about asking “why?” when creating, in fact, “why not?” seems to be a big part of the process. He is the creator of the paper bag mushroom, which has been warming the hearts and nudging the imaginations of Orlandoans for many years, and is now going global with The Spore Project.
I’ll let you nose around Doug’s site on your own to learn more about the history of the paper bag mushroom and how it has led to The Spore Project, but let me give you a little nutshell. During the month of May, Doug is encouraging people all over the world to create installations of mushrooms to call attention to the oft overlooked importance of arts education, and generally just inspire people to get their creative on. People around the globe are participating; businesses, churches, festivals, lots of schools, or just people wanting to do it, and now, a gay publication!
Brendan and I had a small group of people over to our house to make mushrooms. Online editor Jamie Hyman was on-hand, as was performer Sam Singhaus, and our new friend Megan Bixler, whose husband is a co-worker of Brendan’s. Not to be discounted is the help of our dog Morton, who periodically distracted everyone with his tennis ball, and worked diligently on trying to get Jamie to pet him, allergic though she may be. Over beer and wine, we created around 175 mushrooms while we chatted about our lives and the world in general. It took us about 3 ½ hours.
Once we had a couple of those huge IKEA bags full of mushrooms (and to-go cups with beer and wine in hand), we traipsed around the corner to the Watermark Compound, planting mushrooms as we went. I’m not afraid to tell you that I think the results are kind of magical and most certainly were the product of a wonderful afternoon spent with adventurous friends. (Megan, for example, had no idea what I was referring to when I texted her, but still jumped in her car to help.)
So what do you say? Want to join The Spore Project? Below is a video of Mr. Rhodehamel demonstrating how to make one of the paper bag mushrooms. It’s remarkably easy, as you’ll see. Can one guy make a difference in the world with paper bag art? In my opinion, he already has.
By the way, Doug is trying to get NASA to take a mushroom into space and he’d like to ‘shroom the White House lawn, so if you have any connections to help make that happen, let me know!
