Online - July 22, 2005

Shroom with a View

"Mushroom Girls Virus" by Deanne Cheuk's

Pros: mind expansion, temporary higher consciousness, the ability to find humor in a bowl of oatmeal.

Cons: never returning from beyond the cosmic line, those pesky voices in your head, an unnerving and unshakeable conviction that your carpet is alive.

Yeah, tripping on mushrooms doesn’t look so good on paper.

What does, however, are the psychedelic pages of Mushroom Girls Virus, the debut book from artist Deanne Cheuk. Far from the mating-zodiac-signs black-light posters common to the genre, Cheuk found inspiration in mushroom handbooks and art nouveau. A collection of a year’s worth of drawings, paintings, and illustrations, all revolving around girls and mushrooms, have been bound inside the world’s first fully embroidered cloth cover.

Though the gatefold poster insert (a pencil drawing of dreamy ladies, birds, landscapes, and mushrooms washed with watercolors) is an easy highlight, every page is really something special.

Not as special as times spent giggling with your blankie over the silly butterflies on your ceiling.

But you wouldn’t know about that, would you?


Available online at mushroomgirlsvirus.com.