the amazing thing about taxidermy is
that you get to make the animal exactly
the way it was in nature my approach is
slightly different
when I put the hide on I’m doing it
traditionally I’m doing the gluing the
way attacks occur was what I’m doing
stitching the way it would I’m lining up
all the features so that they’re very
true to the animal but the human face
changes the hierarchy we were not
viewing a creature or viewing something
that really reflects us I use the real
animals hide I don’t buy fresh hides I
buy hides that no one has used and I’m
repurposing them for my artwork this is
typical of a hide that I would use where
there’s damage to the hide particularly
the face you’ll see there’s the bullet
hole sort of burn marks around it almost
immediately bugs will start to eat the
nose and eyes of the animal so there
might have been a little damage so this
one is beautiful it has its flaws but
that’s okay probably was not going to be
mounted by a text numbers because of the
problems but for me it’s perfect the
hides are unbelievable it is amazing the
way these animals come together and that
I definitely want the viewer to get to
enjoy and marvel over the fact that that
was done in nature wasn’t something that
I created when I’m stitching it together
I want to make sure you can read the
skin as pores and oils like we read our
own skin it’s really important that I’m
using the animals facial skin back over
its face just transformed I want to
leave as much animal miss
on the face using all the patterns and
everything
every detail of our face evolved to be
so communicative the weights the eyes
the hair removed from the face
everything brought forward and it sort
of was able to increase our civilized
communication through reading a face
that could give really complex
expressions and then that change the way
we interacted with one another the face
is white plastic clay called sculpey I
have a model sit and freehand sculpt the
face and putting the leather on it I
don’t want the face to be monstery at
all
I want a balance between it being really
appealing and something familiar and
also being really unfamiliar it can be
unnerving to have the human face staring
back that I try to make the eyes a
really beautiful part of the face the
lids with the animals real lashes and
that’s sort of a beautiful combination
between human and animal some people say
thanks for the nightmares Kate Clark you
know and other people say thanks for the
compassion Kate Clark you know so I get
the full range of people really
appreciating the work and reading a
positive message into it and other
people taking sort of a faster glance at
it and saying yeah how could you do that
I really want to go beyond the shock
value and curiosity keep the viewer
looking long enough so that they have
more than just an initial reaction that
they actually find meaning in the work
the way I really want them to I love the
body I love the face but for some reason
it’s the ears and the antlers that
trigger me I’m not sure why I think it’s
that’s the animal part right like
personal elements of my face that this
keeps it in the animal world
the animal kingdom it’s unlike anything
else that we connect with and relate to
I think there’s a celebration and
talking about the connection there was a
time where people really knew for
necessity what was happening in the
natural world and now we don’t have that
necessity and the other things that are
conveniences in our lives totally
outweigh that understanding and possibly
we’re really missing it
that you get to make the animal exactly
the way it was in nature my approach is
slightly different
when I put the hide on I’m doing it
traditionally I’m doing the gluing the
way attacks occur was what I’m doing
stitching the way it would I’m lining up
all the features so that they’re very
true to the animal but the human face
changes the hierarchy we were not
viewing a creature or viewing something
that really reflects us I use the real
animals hide I don’t buy fresh hides I
buy hides that no one has used and I’m
repurposing them for my artwork this is
typical of a hide that I would use where
there’s damage to the hide particularly
the face you’ll see there’s the bullet
hole sort of burn marks around it almost
immediately bugs will start to eat the
nose and eyes of the animal so there
might have been a little damage so this
one is beautiful it has its flaws but
that’s okay probably was not going to be
mounted by a text numbers because of the
problems but for me it’s perfect the
hides are unbelievable it is amazing the
way these animals come together and that
I definitely want the viewer to get to
enjoy and marvel over the fact that that
was done in nature wasn’t something that
I created when I’m stitching it together
I want to make sure you can read the
skin as pores and oils like we read our
own skin it’s really important that I’m
using the animals facial skin back over
its face just transformed I want to
leave as much animal miss
on the face using all the patterns and
everything
every detail of our face evolved to be
so communicative the weights the eyes
the hair removed from the face
everything brought forward and it sort
of was able to increase our civilized
communication through reading a face
that could give really complex
expressions and then that change the way
we interacted with one another the face
is white plastic clay called sculpey I
have a model sit and freehand sculpt the
face and putting the leather on it I
don’t want the face to be monstery at
all
I want a balance between it being really
appealing and something familiar and
also being really unfamiliar it can be
unnerving to have the human face staring
back that I try to make the eyes a
really beautiful part of the face the
lids with the animals real lashes and
that’s sort of a beautiful combination
between human and animal some people say
thanks for the nightmares Kate Clark you
know and other people say thanks for the
compassion Kate Clark you know so I get
the full range of people really
appreciating the work and reading a
positive message into it and other
people taking sort of a faster glance at
it and saying yeah how could you do that
I really want to go beyond the shock
value and curiosity keep the viewer
looking long enough so that they have
more than just an initial reaction that
they actually find meaning in the work
the way I really want them to I love the
body I love the face but for some reason
it’s the ears and the antlers that
trigger me I’m not sure why I think it’s
that’s the animal part right like
personal elements of my face that this
keeps it in the animal world
the animal kingdom it’s unlike anything
else that we connect with and relate to
I think there’s a celebration and
talking about the connection there was a
time where people really knew for
necessity what was happening in the
natural world and now we don’t have that
necessity and the other things that are
conveniences in our lives totally
outweigh that understanding and possibly
we’re really missing it
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