Each month I share a new pattern as a digital downloadable screen wallpaper background. My patterns are inspired by nature and created from hand drawn or painted elements. If you’d like to get the monthly wallpaper download delivered directly to your inbox, along with stories about the patterns and updates from my studio, you can sign up for my newsletter here.
The first time I saw the marks that inspired this month’s pattern was last winter and I didn’t have a phone with me. Luckily, a few weeks later in a different forest, I happened across another paper birch with the same patterning on its bark and captured the mystery artist’s work. A friend’s naturalist colleague said they thought it was likely created by a snail or slug munching on algae. Now, a year later, I learned from Michael Wojtech’s book “Bark: a Field Guide to Trees of the Northeast”, that my friend’s colleague was spot on and that tree bark can serve as “pastures for algae-grazing slugs.”
