Wheatpasting in Sheraden

This weekend, with crucial assistance from Shaun Slifer and Kevin Clancy, I put up some prints on the Murphy building in Sheraden. A post office, corner store and laundromat in front, the back side of the building that faces the busway is all boarded up.
The main prints in this piece are large, brightly-colored silkscreen prints of the herons I drew for Third Termite to letterpress print for Outpost journal. We also incorporated baby hawk patterns and some outtakes of the "We're All In This Together" worms that Josh MacPhee printed while he was in town in April.

This work is part of a public art project in the West End of Pittsburgh organized by Orvokki Halme of Future Tenant---who hosted a window show of Celebrate People's History posters back in November. Keep an eye out there for Your Seat at the Banquet, a food justice show that Kevin is co-organizing this Fall (you may remember him from his Portable Utopia project that I blogged here a few months ago---another amazing former teen!)
In Pittsburgh, more than most places, everything is interconnected.
Big thank yous to Shaun and Kevin for braving the blazing sun with me!
Shaun took the photos, for more see my Flickr

Oyster Mushroom Party!

Over the past year or so I've become increasingly fascinated with (read: obsessed) with finding, identifying, and harvesting mushrooms---especially edibles! Last week I officially joined the Western Pennsylvania Mushroom Club, of which several good friends who are way more advanced in their mushroom nerdiness are already members.

One of the first mushrooms I've been able to identify are oysters. They are pretty abundant in Spring and Fall in and around Pittsburgh, and tend to favor stumps; dead wood. This morning I was driving down Fifth Avenue on my way to Frick Park, when I spied a tree thoroughly TEEMING with mushrooms! I turned off and parked as soon as I could and power-walked back to that tree. Check it out!
So strong they are breaking the bark!
I wasn't really prepared to harvest anything, but I had emptied out my Big Red Bag and so filled it. I still left about 2/3 of the mushrooms on the tree, for the next observant passerby.

What do you do with 2 cubic feet of mushrooms? Well, I remembered reading in a cookbook recently about slicing up mushrooms, tossing them in olive oil and salt, and baking them in the oven, like fries. So that's what I did. They are FANTASTIC, I am looking forward to sharing them with my Mending Jam tonight.