Fantasy taxidermy

Submitterateur Whysteriastar spotted the latest works by Sarina Brewer of Custom Creature Taxidermy, a studio that Pesco first blogged about back in 2004. Since then, Brewer's work has appeared in the New York Times, S.F. Chronicle, Maxim, Juxtapos and elsewhere. She told sfgate.com: "Sometimes I think of the carcass art as 3-D scream therapy, but I'm never freaked out by what I make. I'm not doing it for shock value or to intentionally gross people out. I know some will disagree, but I think what I make is beautiful, and that's why I make it." [Custom Creature Taxidermy via Environmental Graffiti]

• [Anonymous]

  This is also called “rogue taxidermy” – see some more great examples at http://taxidermyblog.com

• [Anonymous]

  I spoke with a woman who does this and exhibits at conventions. She said she’s been repeatedly approached by men who, seeing her taxidermy unicorn heads, want to know where they can bag one for themselves.

• [JulianR]

  You might want to google “Wolpertinger”. We Bavarians have been at it since the 19th century, selling those taxidermies off to unsuspecting tourists… I’ve literally seen hundreds of them, all of them different, usually in Bavarian Restaurants, mounted among the classic antlers on the walls.

  • [peterbruells]

    Made-up chimeras, even just chimeras, are quite a little bit older than the 19th century. The jackelope is known from the 16th century at least.

• [JulianR]

  There’s actually a quite shrill short film about Wolpertingers. It’s called “Wolpodzilla”, an obvious mix from Wolpertinger and Godzilla. The plot is rather simple: Wolpodzilla is awakened by Extraterrestrials and moves from her home in lake Tegernsee to the Oktoberfest in Munich (about 30 miles), where she (obviously a girl) wreaks havoc. The aliens’ plan was to get more space for growing weed (or something along those lines), which succeeds. Here’s the URL:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTO8hBQfsCo

• [Anonymous]

  my friend, beth beverly, also does fantastic fantasy taxidermy. she makes hats, hair pieces, ornaments, and tabletop pieces!
  http://blog.philthy.us/?p=208
  http://skinnedeep.wordpress.com/

• [Anonymous]

  The Aussies have been doing it for generations too. Some Americans actually believe the old hoax about the Platypus being a real animal !!

  Occasionally the Wikipedia entry for ‘Platypus’ gets edited back with the truth – but it doesn’t last long. The hoax is too widespread and it gets returned to the joke form pretty quickly.

  No matter how bizarre the story gets (the latest version I heard involved poisoned spines on the feet or some such nonsense) you’ll always find someone willing to believe that it’s true.

  At least Jackalopes are plausible.

• [Anonymous]

  IIRC, the duck-billed platypus was accused of being such a construct when first introduced.

• [Lilith999]

  My brain can’t decide if this picture is really cute or really disturbing…nice dissonance.

• [showcasejase]

  If you’re ever in Adelong, NSW it’s worth seeing what’s on display at the taxidermist in the main street:

  http://showcasejase.blogspot.com/2009/12/taxidermy-as-art.html

• [Anonymous]

  There’s more in this field.
  Check out http://vanessie.nl/ for her skull dolls.