Hello! Welcome to issue 002 of the robletter. This time around I wanted to talk about a project I’ve been chipping away at for a few years now. It’s a project based on the small and mysterious algae/fungi combo, lichen.
Couple lichen facts for you -
Lichens have travelled into space and back… and survived.
An estimated 6% of the Earth’s surface is covered in lichen.
Maybe you’ve seen some of these images or little videos elsewhere online already, but I haven’t really written anything about why I started them or what I’m doing with them.
I started this project back in 2018 out of a genuine interest in what in the heck lichen is. I like walking in the woods and I like nature and I like mossy stuff. Sometimes you see big beardy lichen in trees… what is that?
I started drawing and researching some that I’d seen before. Once I’d drawn a few, I realised I was sort of using the process of drawing to learn to identify them. Researching things for their own sake is sometimes hard for me, but learning by drawing is always a way in, I find.
After I had drawn a bunch, it became clearer that what was interesting was how diverse they were, and that I was actually making a kind of collecting game, like a woodsy version of Pokemon. The world of lichen identifying can feel a little dry to get involved with (sorry lichenologists) but I thought if I could make the characters fun, then maybe people could use these as a portal to go out into nature and start being interested and identifying them for themselves.
Another part of what I was trying to do with the lichen drawings was also humanise them too. I spoke about this in the last newsletter I think, about anthropomorphism in science as a means to relate to things more. It’s complicated, and something I’d like to write a whole post about one day. Anyway, without getting too woo woo for now, I think putting eyes on a rock is more engaging than a rock with no eyes.
At some point I realised I could make little identification videos on my phone. I posted a few videos to instagram and noticed that some of the images weren’t matching up so well with the lichens I was finding, so I went back and adjusted the drawings as I went. I’m glad they weren’t printed in a book at this point. That’s the beauty of working on a project over several years, so you can keep refining it.
I’ve gotten them about as accurate as I think they need to be as a fun entry into learning about the common lichens of the world, and so I’ve gotten some of these A2 posters printed. I haven’t had an online shop in about 10 years, so I am still figuring this out, but I thought I’d give you newsletter people (thank you newsletter people) a heads up first. So if you would like one, here is the link.
Thanks! See you next time, and happy lichen hunting.
I love your lichens! Your illustrations are amazing! I also love the bright green moss that grows among the pines in the blueberry forest. It's so soft and cozy, I used to sleep on it as a kid when I was tired of picking berries.
Love this!