John Cowlbeck
John Cowlbeck gathers mushrooms in the spring and summer around his home on Suck Mountain, just east of the Peaks of Otter in Bedford County. The mushrooms are dried for 3 to 4 months. He collects the weathered wood (stumps, limbs, roots, etc.) year round, cuts them to shape, pressure washes then dries them. He then matches the wood and mushrooms to blend shape and color. Each mushroom is mounted with an aluminum wire in its stem and is attached to the base with hot glue and matching wood chips or moss. Once assembled, the whole sculpture is air brushed with three coats of polyurethane.
Cowlbeck is a graduate of Virginia Tech with a major in geophysics and a minor in mining engineering and is the retired president of Business Systems Associates, Inc. a data processing support company. He shares his home on Suck Mountain with his wife, Kathryn, three labs and two cats.
Click on any of the thumbnail slides to the right to see more of John Cowlbeck's work.
More information about John is available at www.johncowlbeck.com
