Mushroom Girl | Mixed Media Project

The leather pod split. It exposed the inside where the body lay. It was no ordinary body. It was the fruit of the fungus.

A long sigh emitted from the torn seam, vomiting dark loam onto the forest floor. From the center of the cracked husk, a pale, gray hand uncurled. It gripped the green-gray husk with slender, disjointed fingers.

The wet body and face was that of a female, dusted with soft, white spores. Embedded on her forehead were thin, ebony vines meandering through her veins.

Slowly, she rose. This forgotten novelty of the fungi kingdom sat razor stiff, shivering slightly under the canopy of protective oaks. Her form was clad in the same dark loam and velvet moss that had nurtured her.

A light breeze waffled through the forest, attacking her form. Instantly her core thickened. Caps of vibrant scarlet and mottled brown bristled in her tangled, root-like thin strands.

The cream sky stared down at her with a welcoming smile. Lifting her head, she returned the sentiment. She required no energy from the sun. As she took her first breath, the damp earth hummed in welcome. Thread-like mycelium that supported her growth from below pulsated underneath her fingernails, spreading out into the dark soil.

She gripped the damp earth. Her huge, round tan eyes opened wide as the first pangs of hunger rose. Her tentacled fingers examined the floor bed for dead wood, leaves, and old plant and animal parts. Gorging, her hunger was diminished; but didn't satisfy the craving for mushrooms.

Her ears pricked back. Time to re-acquaint herself. Too many years had passed. Her large, round deep-set eyes canvassed the landscape. She paused, inhaled deeply, tethering her essence to the heartbeat of the woods.

All animals large and small foraging nearby paused as though instinctively understanding the prophesy whispered under the canopy. They drew near to witness so word could be spread of her arrival.

The forest had a daughter at last.

For my current mixed media project, I wanted to highlight an unusual image of a female in the night I retrieved from StarryAI, one of my stable diffusion programs. What I love about the image are the huge eyes and the expression of wonder on the girl's face. That she is of the forest is evident in her face. I also retrieved several other stable diffusion images from StarryAI that I used in this design to surround the female in an outdoor environment.

Below are my steps in which I utilized Canva, my design program, to blend the different type images which began with a blank, white canvas. I then added layers of elements to assist in the blending process.

I include here the images used in my design.

^{StarryAI-Girl with large eyes ~ StarryAI - Orange/Red Flower Bouquet ~ StarryAI-Mushroom-White ~ StarryAI-Mushrooms-BrownTrio ~ Female with moon over face ~ Field of flowers ~ White long-stemmed mushroom - Contributed to the #LIL by @bayuismail.}