Taxidermy in Sculpture

 Image found on Pinterest 
Update: The artists name is Pim Palsgraaf!

I have a strange love of taxidermy used in sculpture...I've always felt drawn to it for some reason (though I should say that I am NOT ok with killing animals to make art...many taxidermists now use animals that died of natural causes..."Sustainable taxidermy", if you will...) If you have any interest in the process or the history of taxidermy at all, I suggest you check out:

Still life: Adventures in Taxidermy by Melissa Milgrom

I went to a talk in Brooklyn about the book when it first came out and Emily Mayer, sculptor and taxidermist for Damian Hirst, was there. She had alot of amazing things to say about process, her own work and working for Hirst. There's a good bit about her in the book, as well as the family of taxidermists who worked on the pieces for the American Museum of Natural History, and various others, like Carl Akeley and Walter Potter (neither of which should be left out of a book on taxidermy...)

 Final Voyage - Precious Cargo by Emily Mayer

 Persistence by Beth Beverly of Diamond Tooth Taxidermy

 Peter Gronquist

 Melissa Dixson

 

And of course, Walter Potter...