It seems like just a few months ago when I wrote my review for the 2023 Game of Shrooms. I can’t believe it’s been practically an entire year! And hence, in just 2 days, mushroom hiders and seekers will once again emerge to celebrate the Game of Shrooms.
If you’re new to my blog or to the “Game of Shrooms,” it’s an annual art scavenger hunt that will take place this Saturday, June 8, 2024. Created by Attaboy, this fun art event is a chance for artists around the world to create mushroom-themed artworks and hide them anywhere around the world for eager art hunters (?) to find and keep.
Or if you’d like to read my previous blog posts on the Game of Shrooms, click HERE!
🍄My Shroom Art #1
Last year, I created a mini portrait titled, Shroompoleon, of (you guessed it!) Napoleon Bonaparte. This year, I created a 2-piece artwork called the Faith series, which consists of a piece titled, “Hanging by a Thread” and another piece titled, “Redeemed.”
Faith series: “Hanging by a Thread,” 2024 by The Time Traveler
The back of “Hanging by a Thread”
Faith series: “Redeemed,” 2024 by The Time Traveler
The back of “Redeemed”
To whomever finds and keeps these pieces, I hope that they give you comfort and hope.
🍄My Shroom Art #2
Listening to my own advice from last year’s Game of Shrooms (again, which you can read all about HERE), I created more than one artwork to hide this year. My second shroom art for this year is: Praying for You. Voila!
Praying for You, 2024 by The Time Traveler
The back of Praying for You
I was inspired by this image of two mushrooms on Britannica. For some reason, they reminded me of two rappers posing together and hence came to be Praying for You!
🍄My Shroom Art #3
My third shroom art is, in a way, a continuation of last year’s Shroompoleon. Ladies and gentlemen, I present you Reine des Champignons, aka Queen of Shrooms.
Reine des Champignons aka Queen of Shrooms, 2024 by The Time Traveler
The back of Reine des Champignons, aka Queen of Shrooms
I was inspired by this Marie Antoinette drawing by an unidentified artist from Wellesley College Library’s Special Collections, shared by this cool journal Journal18.
I really like how this piece turned out!
🍄My Shroom Art #4
Lastly but not least, here is my piece, Can’t Take More Shiitake.
Can’t Take More Shiitake, 2024 by The Time Traveler.
And this piece comes with a mini easel! 😁
🍄Clues to Finding My Shroom Arts
Clues to the whereabouts of the above mushroom-themed artworks will be shared via my stories on Instagram. Tune in on Saturday morning at: https://www.instagram.com/littimetravel/
Good luck and happy creating, hiding and hunting! 🍄
Well, Game of Shrooms has come and gone! It was my very first time (ever!) participating. As expected, it was exhilarating and exhausting to join in as both artist and shroom hunter. For this year’s game, I created one mushroom-themed artwork titled, Shroompoleon (aka Napoleon Shroomaparte), which was claimed by a mystery hunter within a few hours.
Shroompoleon before and after getting wrapped.
Shroompoleon out in the wild.
I don’t exactly know how long it took Shroompoleon to find his forever home, as I wasn’t notified. Meanwhile, I ran around the East Bay for over 4 hours looking for shroom arts but found 0 to keep! 😭
*6/12/23 Update: I found a shroom art two days after the Game of Shrooms officially ended! Special shoutout to my colleague for notifying me of the lovely shroom art created by Tina Banda:
Beautiful shroom art by artist Tina Banda. Click HERE to view the artwork on her Instagram page.
Needless to say, I was so unprepared for this event despite hearing about it from my colleague months before. My colleague had successfully found multiple shrooms in the previous Game of Shrooms. Allow me to share what I learned from her and most importantly, from experiencing the games firsthand.
But before I share any lessons/tips, here’s a brief overview of Game of Shrooms 2023!
Game of Shrooms 2023 Review
The anticipation was quite exhilarating. As the day drew nearer and nearer, more red mushroom pins started to pop up on the Artist Map. This was what the map looked like in the evening on Friday June 9, 2023, just a few hours before the game officially began:
Screenshot of the Artist Map (global view). Note: There was a shroom pin in Antarctica! 😂
🍄 Limited to a Few
Although there were so many mushroom pins on the map, the number of shrooms you can actually look for is way fewer as you are limited to where you live and the areas around it. You also need to be lucky to be living in the same area as the talented artist(s) whose work(s) you want to find and keep. For instance, I loved the shroom arts created by Dana Paints Co., especially this artwork shown on Instagram HERE. (If I remember correctly, the official Game of Shrooms Instagram account featured this artwork!)
Alas, the paintings were going to be hidden away in Old Town Fort Collins in Colorado while the earrings were all the way in New Zealand..
🍄 Shroom Art by Bay Area Artists
Shroom pins that showed up in the East Bay.
Luckily for me, there were several artists in the East Bay whose works I really adored and wanted to find:
Sombean – I mean, who wouldn’t want to find and keep these cute little shrooms felted by Sombean??? 😭💕💕💕
Lea Zalinskis: I adore her whimsical shrooms made of paper! Love their expressions and the way the artist described her shrooms: the purple shroom was called “Accidental Rasputin,” the orange one “Migraine Mushroom” and the blue one was referred to as the “sassy fella”! 😂
🍄 Experience as a Hunter: 4 Hours of Desperate Search 👀
So the day before the hunt began, I made a list of artists whose works I wanted to find and keep (see above). Then I followed their Instagram accounts for the latest hints shared and wrote them down on my phone. I thought this was enough preparation. Boy, was I wrong!
When the day of the Game dawned, I leisurely ate breakfast and headed outside. To my utter surprise, when I opened Instagram on my phone, I saw that many of the artworks had already been found! I tried to keep my calm as I went on to look for other artworks. But as I made my way to the locations hinted at by the artists, those shrooms were being claimed as well!
I began to panic a little as I desperately tried to find remaining shrooms. But as I walked around the East Bay huffing and puffing in search of shroom art, I was notified by the artists that all their works had been claimed.
After over four hours of searching and finding nothing, I resigned and admitted my defeat.
Photo by Bacila Vlad. This was me looking out the window after coming back home. I had completely failed as a shroom hunter.
🍄 Experience as a Participating Artist: Consolation & Gratitude 🎨
I utterly failed as a shroom hunter this year, finding not a single shroom art even after over 4 hours of searching. But I was glad to know that my shroom art, Shroompoleon, had been claimed with all its packaging and message. Knowing that Napoleon Shroomaparte had found his forever home was a consolation. If it weren’t for the art I had hidden, I don’t think I would have felt like I participated in this year’s Game of Shrooms.
Below is the reel I made for shroom hunters looking for Shroompoleon:
Here are some useful tips for artists who want to participate in the next Game of Shrooms:
Start Early. I’d say you should take ample time to create artworks that people would want to find and keep. This is an excellent opportunity to share your passion, your creativity, to the public! Make the most out of it.
Make more than one artwork. You can certainly create just one shroom art, but I’ve noticed how popular artists make more than one. I think it’s great for them to do that, as it creates more chances for those who want to find and keep their works.
Create good marketing materials. Utilize social media to build anticipation leading up to the day of the game, and prepare business cards/flyers to hide with your work. Again, this is your chance to share your art and bring joy to others via your art!
Beware that your art will be found very quickly. As I found out this year, shroom hunters are very competitive and eager to find artworks! This will be especially true if you are a talented artist. I know one artist whose shrooms were claimed minutes after they were hidden!
Understand that people might not tag or mention you. Although I’ve asked hunters to tag me if they found Shroompoleon, I wasn’t tagged/messaged that my art was found. And I’ve heard from other artists that they also didn’t get notified. Though some hunters most definitely will tag you in Instagram or send you a message to let you know and thank you, understand that not everyone will for one reason or another.
Game of Shrooms Tips: For Hunters
They say failure is the mother of success. Here are the most important things I learned this year for a more successful hunt next year:
Know thy neighborhood. You will have the most advantage in the neighborhood you are familiar with, whether that be the town you grew up in or lived the longest in. One might think this won’t matter but it does, when there are numerous hunters vying for shroom art.
Vehicle, vehicle, vehicle. You need wheels for this event! Unless you want to walk around cities on foot like me and dejectedly watch everyone find shrooms before you do. Public transit won’t get you far either. At the very least, get an electric scooter, with which you can race to shrooms before others.
The game is no joke. I had no idea people were this passionate about shroom art! The competition is fierce, especially for popular artworks. So set out early, have a plan, keep tabs on artists and follow them to get the latest hints.
If you feel comfortable, please do let the artist(s) know. Please do let the artist(s) know that you’ve found their artworks! It helps them keep count of their works yet to be found and keeps others from looking for shrooms already found. Also, it just makes the artists’ day if you let them know and show appreciation. 💜
Comfy shoes are a must!!! The reason why I survived the approximately five hours of walking and running was my tennis shoes. If it weren’t for them, my feet would have been covered with blisters. Even if you plan to drive around, I say comfortable shoes are a must – you never know when you’ll have to run to your destination!
Divide & conquer. Work as a team with friends/family members interested. With different shroom artworks hidden across an entire neighborhood/city, it’s best to divide and conquer.
Final Words
Last but not least, stay safe! As it says on the official Game of Shrooms page, it is an “at your own risk event” in which you will be participating with total strangers. Practice safety!
Equally important, watch where you’re going! Due to the excitement and fear of losing yet another art to another shroom hunter, I was impatient to cross roads and sometimes running to get to places. Beware of cars, pedestrians, and whatnot!
There you have it – tips for hunters and artists for the next game of shrooms. And guess what? Attaboy, the creator of Game of Shrooms, announced the date of the next game already! Game of Shrooms 2024 will be on June 8, 2024.
🍄 Let the countdown begin!!! 🍄
P.S. To view my post on the Game of Shrooms before the 2023 event, click HERE (feat. all the excitement & anticipation).
P.P.S. Did you know that Tina Banda’s shroom art glows in the dark? It’s stunning! 🤩
It’s finally June… Which means Game of Shrooms is almost here! Next week, the 2023 Game of Shrooms will commence. What is “Game of Shrooms”? It’s an annual art hide-and-seek that takes place all over the world for just one day; and this year, it’ll be on Saturday June 10, 2023. It’s a day when artists around the world hide their original art of/about/inspired by mushrooms out in the public. Participants use clues given by the artists to find their artworks, and finders get to keep the artworks! According to the official website HERE, this festive event was created by Attaboy in 2019. (For more on Attaboy, aka Daniel Seifert, visit his bio HERE.)
Photo by Irina Iacob.
Until this year, I had no idea that such a thing even existed! I guess that’s because it’s only been 4 years since it began (this is only the fifth Game of Shrooms event to have ever taken place!) and because it’s an “underground holiday,” per Attaboy’s website. I only found out thanks to a colleague of mine who had participated last year.
And so here I am, joining in on this year’s Game of Shrooms!
🍄How to Participate
Photo by Michael Fousert.
Want to join in on this year’s Game of Shrooms? You can do so by simply searching for a mushroom artwork hidden nearby (to view the map of all the participating mushrooms, click HERE. Scroll down and refer to the interactive map to find your nearest/favorite mushroom art!
Screenshot of the interactive Global Map featured on the official website.
Or, you can do so by hiding a mushroom! To participate as an artist, you’ll need to create an original artwork(s) featuring mushroom(s). Then, submit the form on the Game of Shrooms website HERE. *Scroll down until you see this form below to fill out:
This is the electronic form you need to fill out if you are hiding your artwork for others to find!Some info you’ll need to fill out on the form.
After filling out the form and clicking on the “Submit” button, this page should show up:
Your pin should appear on the map sometime later (it says it’s not added instantly). The final step is to promote your mushroom art via social media and give hints to those who want to find your artwork! 🙂
*Some important guidelines for the event include…
Not hiding artworks in protected areas.
Not damaging private property.
Not leaving any trace after the event, i.e. picking up after yourself. If no one finds your art, you need to retrieve it from the hiding place.
It took me a while to even decide what to create. As I scrolled through the official Instagram account of Game of Shrooms, I saw unique artworks that were painted, sculpted, quilted, felted, and even carved. I was tempted to craft something out, as it looks (and is) like an original souvenir. But as I know the limit of my crafting skills, I opted in to do a painting. But to keep the souvenir-like feel to it, I decided to paint on a tiny canvas. It’s harder to find, easier to take home, and cuter, I think, to keep!
I initially imagined painting cute little mushrooms, but after seeing this incredibly artistic shroom portrait of King Henry VIII (click HERE for the artwork featured on Instagram) I changed my mind. As someone who loves history, I was way too inspired to go back to painting tiny mushrooms.
And hence, my art for this year’s Game of Shrooms was born. I present to you, Napoleon Shroomaparte, aka Shroompoleon!
Napoleon Shroomaparte, aka Shroompoleon (The Time Traveler, 2023)
Clues to Finding “Shroompoleon”
Shroompoleon will be hidden at the University of California, Berkeley – somewhere in the southern part of the campus. Here is the mushroom pin on the Global Map:
More hints will be disclosed on June 10th via Instagram. Stay Tuned… Happy hunting!
P.S. If you find Shroomaparte, please tag @littimetravel for a special shoutout. 😉
6/10/23 Update #1: Happy Game of Shrooms Day! Hints have gone live on Instagram. Here they are:
6/10/23 Update #2: Shroompoleon was found and taken to his forever home by a mystery shroom hunter sometime before 12 PM. Thank you all for your interest & support! ❤
6/12/23 Update #3: I found a mushroom art to keep!
The Time Traveler is an upcoming author who holds great appreciation for both classic literature and history. The author aspires to publish historical fictions and other written works in the near future, in hopes of creating works that entertain, inform, and inspire.
The author also appreciates all things aesthetic and enjoys traveling around the world to learn and observe.
