Ghost Pipe Medallion
Linocut print
Rust red oil-based print ink on translucent Thai Unryu paper
22” x 16”
Edition of 9

This is one of the largest prints I’ve made. I wanted to have enough space to showcase the detail and movement within each Ghost Pipe. I chose a translucent and extremely thin Thai Unryu paper for this print to mirror simultaneously the delicate fragility and inherent strength the Ghost Pipe embodies. This made the piece very difficult to print, as it was impossible to use my old press. Each piece in this edition is hand printed with an old wooden spoon and my bare hands.

More about the Ghost Pipe:

I first stumbled (literally) upon the Ghost Pipe, or Monotropa Uniflora, on a hike in one of my favorite Lake Michigan forests. I was immediately struck by its strange beauty, having seen nothing like it before. Upon learning more about this elusive plant, my fascination with it has only grown.

The Ghost Pipe is a highly medicinal plant, often used for helping with epilepsy and PTSD, and also helpful in times of transition or great loss; it is a healer. It is indeed a flower, though it lacks chlorophyll and instead draws its nutrients from the roots of trees and the fungi between them without starving either; it is a secret and determined survivor. It pushes its shoulders through the forest decay after the rains to stand strong with frail petals among the pines; it is proud and often unnoticed. I have read that some indigenous tribes believed that Ghost Pipes, growing in clusters in the forest, represented the spirits of men who once stood and deliberated important issues on that very land. To me, men standing in circles deciding fates is an old and tired story. I like to think of the Ghost Pipes instead as the spirits of women gathered, rising up from the old dying matter that has always piled above them, sustained by underground networks, to offer beauty, strength, and health.