Morbid Tendencies: Frequently Asked Questions

updated 31 December 2009

What do you do?

I make art out of dead animals and other nice things. YOU buy the art, then I take the money and go buy gin. See how simple it is?

Where’s the Unfortunate Animal of the Month Club?

The Unfortunate Animal of the Month Club is currently closed. If you’re missing an already-ordered bunny, contact me.

Are you still in business? Also, why don’t you do LiveJournal, or have a blog?

Yes indeedy, here I yam! I have a hold on ordering currently. BUT! if you go to my main page and hit the blue Vanity ball, you will be at what I do have. Please don’t go if you don’t like dead things! I’m not planning on making it pretty for company, sorry to all! And LiveJournal will be along shortly.

Speaking of offending people, those folks you think Most Likely To Be Offended (TM) often are not. I made the mistake of talking about the tragic wastefulness of cat-killed wildlife in front of my grandmother’s social group, and next thing you know this tiny old lady is telling me how she saved a flying squirrel for months in her freezer and wished she had known me. Another time I was on a plane with a rather severe looking boss-woman-PTA type, in power suit and just so hair. She asked what I was doing (I needed to sew 3 bunnies for Julie of Goth House fame before I landed) and I warily told her that this rabbit was unfortunate enough to have been born with just one head, so I was fixing it. She thought about this a bit, then leaned over to tell me conspiratorily: “You know, I went to the Build-A-Bunny Workshop, and I thought it would be like that—choose 4 arms, 3 legs and 2 heads, all in different colours, and have fun making your critter. What a disappointment! You pick an empty body and wait in line for it to be stuffed for you—you should really consider opening a real store, I’d go and I’m sure lots of people would!” This restored my faith in humanity for quite some time, let me tell you. I would give more examples but I don’t type well.

Why “Morbid Tendencies”?

My biological mother never worried about me…she liked my—shall we say—“use” of the dead animals on the farm she owned (I was 14). Finally, while I was starting college, she got “concerned.” As she worked at Juvenile Detention, she asked the child psychologist there “should I be concerned?” He asked her for photos of my art; after looking at them he asked her a few questions. The upshot? “Your daughter’s fine, she just has morbid tendencies.”

Are those really bones?

If they look like bones, they’re bones. I don’t like fake. Real bones behave different than plastic...to get the color, ya gots ta bury them. If you boil or bleach them, they not only look awful (white and common), they are also weak and porous. Now is THAT a good idea? So, to get a rich look, each one different depending on soil and weather, bury them about 8 to 18" under. Bugs clean ’em for you, or sometimes tree roots. In fact, I like to make Dead Gardens. To make your own, take a garden bed, preferably above ground ( a wooden, large packing crate like for lettuce is perfect), and line it with landscape cloth. Lay in a single layer of raw, nasty skulls or carcasses, and cover with dirt and plant veggies! A couple crops later, and you are ready to invite your friends over for a gin and Wake The Dead party. Don’t forget your shovels!

Did you sculpt the horse head inside that?

Sigh. Come here so I can slap you purple…. NO, I do NOT sculpt the animal forms, I BUY them. I am more than capable of making them every time from scratch, but that would put each piece into the $20,000 range at least…you don’t get uppity if an oil painter buys his canvas instead of weaving it, so I don’t want any more lip out of you, little missy!

What kind of skulls do you use? Any favorites?

I use ALL skulls, but almost never bovines. Most-used are coyote, fox, cat, bobcat, bat, dove, mink, and muskrat (’cause I can get them). Favourites are any cats, anything exotic, toothy things like gator and barracuda…my current favourite of those I own would have to be a cat skull whose teeth have been replaced with crystals.

When I was little, we would go sturgeon fishing…my father told me there is a special bone in the head of them that jewelers love to get their hands on, but it is hard to locate or something. Does anybody know if this is true, or just a bunch of hooey?

News flash! I went to the coast and lo and behold, in a smoked fish shop there were bags for sale, made up like an arts project kit. In each bag was a strip of poster paint colours, a stupid paint brush for children, and three sturgeon bones. The lady said there is only one real bone in the whole darn fish, it’s in the head, and this was it. I promptly bought one and was happy without a gin&tonic even…. So, the mystery is solved, though I want to thank Chris Hull for his suggestion about otoliths.

Where do you get your skulls, furs, dead animals?

Roadkill, friends, acquaintances, Ebay, hunters who advertise online….

What do I feed my iguana?

*NOT* hamburger and iceburg lettuce, it will eventually kill them. They need less than 1 percent protein in their diets, so meat is right out. The bad news is you need to blend up about 18 different fruits and veggies and serve them the glop—the good news is you can freeze a bunch of it. See Jenni’s link to contact her on all your iguana care questions. Right now! Go!

What’s the most exotic material you’ve worked with?

Rhino hide.

Do you have a favorite bone?

The shoulder of a mole. It’s gorgeous! And so wee…. very 20s I say. Great for earrings.

Has anything ever creeped you out?

Once I drank warm V8 juice while I was skinning a musky squirrel. Had to stop drinking the V8 juice. Mind you it was with an exacto knife blade…no handle.

When will you be publishing a new catalog?

That’s on hold for awhile. Like, a LONG while! I just ADORE catalogues but it’s too much work for just little ol’ me. Now, if bored people want to come to Tacoma and help me dig up animals, label bunnies and shop for eyes, I’d have time to do stuff like that….

Have you ever killed animals to make your art?

In Vancouver, where there are black squirrels, I reeeeeeally wanted to…but I couldn’t get close enough to one unobserved.

Oh, actually, there was this bunny…friend of mine wanted to make an art project for school, wherein this rabbit slowly inflated and deflated: my parents raised meat rabbits, so she bought one and we bopped it on the head and she was so grossed out by the empty bunny that she threw the skin away. The rabbit carcass sat in my fridge awaiting roasting for exactly one day, after which I and my roommate lost the argument with roommate #3, who attested that we would do no whole-rabbit-roasts in the shared kitchen, period. Sigh. He was such a loser, he made us take the baby out of the fireplace, and he got mad when I left the bathtub filled with blood. Anyway, the skinned, eviscerated, pointy-footed rabbit was such a marvelous shape that I spent a very long time staring at it and everything I have drawn since seems to be influenced by it. Even portraits, and fish. Heh. YOU think I’m kidding.

OOPS! Almost forgot about bugs. I have heartlessly murdered an assortment of insects, JUST so I can have their little dead bodies. I know! I’m bad. But I think I have enough karma in the bank to cover the bill, and dammit, these are pretty great bugs. PLUS, if I find an armadillo, I might have to off the poor little dear, seeing as how they can’t see bloody well fit to DIE already, ANYWHERE where I can pick one up. My life is a black pit of blackness. 3 swoops, back of hand to forehead.

Is that a real skull in that taxidermy thing?

No. That would waste a perfectly good skull. Skulls are too hard to come by to hide them where you can’t see them. If you can SEE a skull, it is a real one—I do NOT use fake, plastic skulls.

Are you gothier than thou?

No.

Any major influences on your art?

See the Dead Skinned Rabbit above. Also, my mother’s farm’s dead heap and the things I found there; every fashion magazine I ever read; and once upon a time, I seem to recall having seen some footage of someone’s scalp being sewn back together. That thick skin being sewn over the skull was very fascinating, I thought….

How the hell did you get Robert?

This is Robert, The Best Dead Cat In The Whole World. He was a gift flung at me by my stepfather, who found him under someone’s house. Without the frame, of course; I added that myself. He likes to get up at night and nibble on one corner of his frame, and he guides people’s dead cat’s spirits to The Next Place so that they don’t have to find it by themselves.

Where have you lived?

Born in Washington State, raised in Australia, back to Washington (Seattle’s keen enough to stay there). Some time in Hawaii. Lived in a tent in Valdez, Alaska for a summer, and there I found Jenni, who now lives north of Seattle, brings me beer in a bucket, babysits rotting things, and kidnaps me for camping. We love Jenni!

Did you teach yourself or have you formal education?

OK. I’m gonna say some bad things about the UW Seattle. Ahem. I have a 5 year degree in large scale public art, a BFA, from the UW…and I wish I never would have gone. Really! I could have taken that money and invited working artists to dinner and parties to pick their brains about art speak, and working with galleries, and framing, and anything at all I was interested in. Instead, I had to learn How Not To Walk Out Of A Crit, Why Rocks Are Better Than Bronze Dolphins, and We (Heart) Chihuli!! I was so violently shy I wouldn’t go to open studios. The best thing there is Norm in metal arts, he is a complete doll, maybe if I had taken ceramics and gotten Jaimie I would have felt better about it all, but really, seriously folks—college is not what it used to be. Go to a technical school, like Pratt, and learn useful skills. Don’t go to How To Be An Artist Schools. Oh, and art school doesn’t like you to decorate horses, sew skin over things and frame dead cats. It wants you to hot-glue barbie heads to a chair and paint them gold and say it is having a dialogue about AIDS with the toaster that is hidden in a box around the corner. Plus, if I have to spend one more moment pretending to be outraged that Twisted Arc got moved, I shall be most surely vexed!

What is your favorite work environment?

Unlimited Bombay Sapphire, Esweetie reading to me, lots of odd materials accessible and labeled and in little drawers.

Does anybody else do work like you do?

Well, actually, I have found some kindred spirits! I have also just been made aware of some Breeble Bears and stuff, but will have to put them here after I remember how. Perhaps another g&t will help me...
The Urban Beast Project
Catalyst Studios
Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermy
Luminant Studio

Is there anyone you admire or who you would say has an influence on your work?

Oh, lots I’m sure. Just love Frazetta, Dave what’s-his-face that illustrates things for Neil and did that lovely book of comics with the stages of death collector’s plates. McKean? Anyway. Also Mr Tree Himself, argh, what is HIS name? Illustrated Snow,Glass, Apples. Sigh. Don’t make me look this up! I’ll get back to him. Anson, Brom, that guy that did the dragons I like (see how hard this is for me?), also Whelan, Yoshitaka Amano, Now I’m annoyed I can’t remember Mr Wonderful Trees man’s name. VESS! I looked it up, it’s Charles Vess. Is he not the greatest ever? And it *IS* Dave McKean. Whew.

Do you ever do digital artwork, or only 3D?

I’ve been so busy avoiding making art that I haven’t done much. I did get really sick once and made a Painter movie that made a lot of sense at the time. Now if I can just find it, I’ll put it up here….

Is that real skin? On the artwork, I mean?

But of course. From mammals. No-one you know.

And if those didn’t answer your question, email me and I’ll add your question and the answer!

updated 31 December 2009 What do you do? I make art out of dead animals and other nice things. YOU buy the art, then I take the money and go buy gin. See how simple it is?
Where’s the Unfortunate Animal of the Month Club? The Unfortunate Animal of the Month Club is currently closed. If you’re missing an already-ordered bunny, contact me.
Are you still in business? Also, why don’t you do LiveJournal, or have a blog? Yes indeedy, here I yam! I have a hold on ordering currently. BUT! if you go to my main page and hit the blue Vanity ball, you will be at what I do have. Please don’t go if you don’t like dead things! I’m not planning on making it pretty for company, sorry to all! And LiveJournal will be along shortly. Speaking of offending people, those folks you think Most Likely To Be Offended (TM) often are not. I made the mistake of talking about the tragic wastefulness of cat-killed wildlife in front of my grandmother’s social group, and next thing you know this tiny old lady is telling me how she saved a flying squirrel for months in her freezer and wished she had known me. Another time I was on a plane with a rather severe looking boss-woman-PTA type, in power suit and just so hair. She asked what I was doing (I needed to sew 3 bunnies for Julie of Goth House fame before I landed) and I warily told her that this rabbit was unfortunate enough to have been born with just one head, so I was fixing it. She thought about this a bit, then leaned over to tell me conspiratorily: “You know, I went to the Build-A-Bunny Workshop, and I thought it would be like that—choose 4 arms, 3 legs and 2 heads, all in different colours, and have fun making your critter. What a disappointment! You pick an empty body and wait in line for it to be stuffed for you—you should really consider opening a real store, I’d go and I’m sure lots of people would!” This restored my faith in humanity for quite some time, let me tell you. I would give more examples but I don’t type well.
Why “Morbid Tendencies”? My biological mother never worried about me…she liked my—shall we say—“use” of the dead animals on the farm she owned (I was 14). Finally, while I was starting college, she got “concerned.” As she worked at Juvenile Detention, she asked the child psychologist there “should I be concerned?” He asked her for photos of my art; after looking at them he asked her a few questions. The upshot? “Your daughter’s fine, she just has morbid tendencies.”
Are those really bones? If they look like bones, they’re bones. I don’t like fake. Real bones behave different than plastic...to get the color, ya gots ta bury them. If you boil or bleach them, they not only look awful (white and common), they are also weak and porous. Now is THAT a good idea? So, to get a rich look, each one different depending on soil and weather, bury them about 8 to 18" under. Bugs clean ’em for you, or sometimes tree roots. In fact, I like to make Dead Gardens. To make your own, take a garden bed, preferably above ground ( a wooden, large packing crate like for lettuce is perfect), and line it with landscape cloth. Lay in a single layer of raw, nasty skulls or carcasses, and cover with dirt and plant veggies! A couple crops later, and you are ready to invite your friends over for a gin and Wake The Dead party. Don’t forget your shovels!
Did you sculpt the horse head inside that? Sigh. Come here so I can slap you purple…. NO, I do NOT sculpt the animal forms, I BUY them. I am more than capable of making them every time from scratch, but that would put each piece into the $20,000 range at least…you don’t get uppity if an oil painter buys his canvas instead of weaving it, so I don’t want any more lip out of you, little missy!
What kind of skulls do you use? Any favorites? I use ALL skulls, but almost never bovines. Most-used are coyote, fox, cat, bobcat, bat, dove, mink, and muskrat (’cause I can get them). Favourites are any cats, anything exotic, toothy things like gator and barracuda…my current favourite of those I own would have to be a cat skull whose teeth have been replaced with crystals. When I was little, we would go sturgeon fishing…my father told me there is a special bone in the head of them that jewelers love to get their hands on, but it is hard to locate or something. Does anybody know if this is true, or just a bunch of hooey? News flash! I went to the coast and lo and behold, in a smoked fish shop there were bags for sale, made up like an arts project kit. In each bag was a strip of poster paint colours, a stupid paint brush for children, and three sturgeon bones. The lady said there is only one real bone in the whole darn fish, it’s in the head, and this was it. I promptly bought one and was happy without a gin&tonic even…. So, the mystery is solved, though I want to thank Chris Hull for his suggestion about otoliths.
Where do you get your skulls, furs, dead animals? Roadkill, friends, acquaintances, Ebay, hunters who advertise online….
What do I feed my iguana? NOT hamburger and iceburg lettuce, it will eventually kill them. They need less than 1 percent protein in their diets, so meat is right out. The bad news is you need to blend up about 18 different fruits and veggies and serve them the glop—the good news is you can freeze a bunch of it. See Jenni’s link to contact her on all your iguana care questions. Right now! Go!
What’s the most exotic material you’ve worked with? Rhino hide.
Do you have a favorite bone? The shoulder of a mole. It’s gorgeous! And so wee…. very 20s I say. Great for earrings.
Has anything ever creeped you out? Once I drank warm V8 juice while I was skinning a musky squirrel. Had to stop drinking the V8 juice. Mind you it was with an exacto knife blade…no handle.
When will you be publishing a new catalog? That’s on hold for awhile. Like, a LONG while! I just ADORE catalogues but it’s too much work for just little ol’ me. Now, if bored people want to come to Tacoma and help me dig up animals, label bunnies and shop for eyes, I’d have time to do stuff like that….
Have you ever killed animals to make your art? In Vancouver, where there are black squirrels, I reeeeeeally wanted to…but I couldn’t get close enough to one unobserved. Oh, actually, there was this bunny…friend of mine wanted to make an art project for school, wherein this rabbit slowly inflated and deflated: my parents raised meat rabbits, so she bought one and we bopped it on the head and she was so grossed out by the empty bunny that she threw the skin away. The rabbit carcass sat in my fridge awaiting roasting for exactly one day, after which I and my roommate lost the argument with roommate #3, who attested that we would do no whole-rabbit-roasts in the shared kitchen, period. Sigh. He was such a loser, he made us take the baby out of the fireplace, and he got mad when I left the bathtub filled with blood. Anyway, the skinned, eviscerated, pointy-footed rabbit was such a marvelous shape that I spent a very long time staring at it and everything I have drawn since seems to be influenced by it. Even portraits, and fish. Heh. YOU think I’m kidding. OOPS! Almost forgot about bugs. I have heartlessly murdered an assortment of insects, JUST so I can have their little dead bodies. I know! I’m bad. But I think I have enough karma in the bank to cover the bill, and dammit, these are pretty great bugs. PLUS, if I find an armadillo, I might have to off the poor little dear, seeing as how they can’t see bloody well fit to DIE already, ANYWHERE where I can pick one up. My life is a black pit of blackness. 3 swoops, back of hand to forehead.
Is that a real skull in that taxidermy thing? No. That would waste a perfectly good skull. Skulls are too hard to come by to hide them where you can’t see them. If you can SEE a skull, it is a real one—I do NOT use fake, plastic skulls.
Are you gothier than thou? No.
Any major influences on your art? See the Dead Skinned Rabbit above. Also, my mother’s farm’s dead heap and the things I found there; every fashion magazine I ever read; and once upon a time, I seem to recall having seen some footage of someone’s scalp being sewn back together. That thick skin being sewn over the skull was very fascinating, I thought….
How the hell did you get Robert? This is Robert, The Best Dead Cat In The Whole World. He was a gift flung at me by my stepfather, who found him under someone’s house. Without the frame, of course; I added that myself. He likes to get up at night and nibble on one corner of his frame, and he guides people’s dead cat’s spirits to The Next Place so that they don’t have to find it by themselves.
Where have you lived? Born in Washington State, raised in Australia, back to Washington (Seattle’s keen enough to stay there). Some time in Hawaii. Lived in a tent in Valdez, Alaska for a summer, and there I found Jenni, who now lives north of Seattle, brings me beer in a bucket, babysits rotting things, and kidnaps me for camping. We love Jenni!
Did you teach yourself or have you formal education? OK. I’m gonna say some bad things about the UW Seattle. Ahem. I have a 5 year degree in large scale public art, a BFA, from the UW…and I wish I never would have gone. Really! I could have taken that money and invited working artists to dinner and parties to pick their brains about art speak, and working with galleries, and framing, and anything at all I was interested in. Instead, I had to learn How Not To Walk Out Of A Crit, Why Rocks Are Better Than Bronze Dolphins, and We (Heart) Chihuli!! I was so violently shy I wouldn’t go to open studios. The best thing there is Norm in metal arts, he is a complete doll, maybe if I had taken ceramics and gotten Jaimie I would have felt better about it all, but really, seriously folks—college is not what it used to be. Go to a technical school, like Pratt, and learn useful skills. Don’t go to How To Be An Artist Schools. Oh, and art school doesn’t like you to decorate horses, sew skin over things and frame dead cats. It wants you to hot-glue barbie heads to a chair and paint them gold and say it is having a dialogue about AIDS with the toaster that is hidden in a box around the corner. Plus, if I have to spend one more moment pretending to be outraged that Twisted Arc got moved, I shall be most surely vexed!
What is your favorite work environment? Unlimited Bombay Sapphire, Esweetie reading to me, lots of odd materials accessible and labeled and in little drawers.
Does anybody else do work like you do? Well, actually, I have found some kindred spirits! I have also just been made aware of some Breeble Bears and stuff, but will have to put them here after I remember how. Perhaps another g&t will help me... The Urban Beast Project Catalyst Studios Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermy Luminant Studio
Is there anyone you admire or who you would say has an influence on your work? Oh, lots I’m sure. Just love Frazetta, Dave what’s-his-face that illustrates things for Neil and did that lovely book of comics with the stages of death collector’s plates. McKean? Anyway. Also Mr Tree Himself, argh, what is HIS name? Illustrated Snow,Glass, Apples. Sigh. Don’t make me look this up! I’ll get back to him. Anson, Brom, that guy that did the dragons I like (see how hard this is for me?), also Whelan, Yoshitaka Amano, Now I’m annoyed I can’t remember Mr Wonderful Trees man’s name. VESS! I looked it up, it’s Charles Vess. Is he not the greatest ever? And it IS Dave McKean. Whew.
Do you ever do digital artwork, or only 3D? I’ve been so busy avoiding making art that I haven’t done much. I did get really sick once and made a Painter movie that made a lot of sense at the time. Now if I can just find it, I’ll put it up here….
Is that real skin? On the artwork, I mean? But of course. From mammals. No-one you know.
And if those didn’t answer your question, email me and I’ll add your question and the answer!