I started my journey working with dead things myself in the early months of 2022 after a lifetime of interest in all things creepy & curios. I grew up watching horror movies, fascinated by ghosts, oddities, the afterlife and anything to do with death. "Death and taxes are two things that are a given in our lives", so the old saying goes. Death is unavoidable, I've never seen the point of fearing it, I'd much rather embrace it so to speak.
I see my artwork as a beautiful way of honoring the life that the specimen preserved within it once lived. Instead of decaying, rotting away into the earth, they're carefully preserved to last decades, for potentially several generations to observe, appreciate and learn from.
I was very nervous entering this hobby as I tend to be a perfectionist and hold myself to a very high standard. I've only just dipped my toes into the shallow waters of the entomology & taxidermy pool so to speak, but I am loving each and every single moment of it. Each new species is a learning curve as I am entirely self-taught. There have been some mistakes along the way and I will no doubt continue to make mistakes, but that is how we achieve growth and learn.
I believe the above qualities have helped me with my progress, even after suffering a major accident to my dominant hand barely a month into learning how to pin bugs, I am still able to see considerable progress and growth in my work. I still see some room for improvement (I'm sorry to toot my own horn a little bit here) but I am extremely proud of myself and my progress thus far.
I've received an overwhelming amount of support from not only friends and family, but complete strangers, I cannot express how grateful I am for that. I've always been a very creative person, but never in my wildest dreams did I think I would get to do something like this. I'm excited to continue on this journey, learning new skills, meeting amazing new people and creating stunning, high quality artwork for future generations to enjoy.