Life Begins

Slime molds branched off from the evolutionary tree before animals split from plants and fungi. And they don’t quite fit into any other group: Some live as individual cells but come together and work as a group when conditions are right. Others are huge single-celled organisms that can grow to be several feet across and contain thousands (sometimes millions!) of nuclei with no membrane between them.

They very well may have been one of the first forms of life, hence the title of my piece.

I began with a piece of digitally printed fabric that I machine stitched.

I dyed cotton string and hand couched it to the surface to reflect the multiple growing arms of the organism

Life Begins, 40x26"