Fads and Trends - Reinventing Taxidermy Presentation

Well played old chap

 

Man I sure am glad I don't care about all of this silliness anymore these days... Its so much more fun to read all of this non-sense... Some things I will just never understand.. Carry on..

GO TRUMP!!!

 

No matter what one thinks of taxidermy competition, in the end, I feel Simon T. Blackshaw summed it up real well when he accepted his lifetime achievement award from the World Taxidermy and Fish Carving Championship. If you haven't seen it, please watch it. You can find the link on this site as well as on youtube.

 

Thank you very much Tanglewood, everyone on this thread needs to watch his speech. Not only is it touching but a perfect example of class and how a true gentleman should act and represent our industry. A far cry from what the creator of this thread represents.

 

Can you post the link here? I would like to watch it but I can't seem to find it.

 

Look under the featured video of McKenzie open house on the front page of this site. It is the first one listed.

 

Thanks, I pretty much never even look at the opening page.

 

Please guys, stop with the love/hate fest. No one is every going to be Simon Blackshaw. He and Henry Wichers Inchemuk were "oners" and they only come by once in a lifetime. I suppose I've always referred to us as an "industry" but that's actually a joke. Though our quality has improved due to the real artists who sculpt and produce our manikins, we are still know by the tobacco chewing, dirty T-shirt and Levis, and looking as if we needed a bath. Certainly some of us have never projected ourselves in such a manner, but the reputation is well deserved. Go to an awards banquet and tell me I'm a liar.

I'm not defending Joe's stype or anyone else's for that matter, but sometimes a kick in the head works when a pat on the back doesn't. When this site first started there was a hew and cry about me and how "ignorant" my answers were. I assure those of you who're tempted to claim I've mellowed with age don't know me at all. Perhaps Joe should have a filter on, but I suspect it's a bit late in the game for him. But perhaps that shoe fits several others who seem almost euphoric in badmouthing him. Cuts both ways. I've seen the majority of you attacking the messenger but not a single one of you has managed to argue about the message. When some of you get down of that high horse, you'll know that much of taxidermy today depends on "novelty" in some sort of way. The infamous "pig on a stick" is as real as it gets. There was no story, now putting it into a realistic context or imagining "what happens next" scenarios. Whitetail competition has gotten so "artsy" that they actually created a separate category for deer mounted in conventional, closed-mouth depictions. Conversely, think about Rick Carter's wild boar eating a green snake, "Winter Warrior" by Scott Brewer, or Ken Walker's ringtail alarmed by the tarantula. Those were realistic taxidermy. I know you can all tell the difference and Joe was simply lamenting about the methods that he subscribes to having been taken away by a new day from when appreciation like his was "industy" wide.

 

Apparently we have circled back to the pig on a stick. I didn't read all four pages of this thread so forgive me if I'm off point. But to refer to George's comment about the pig and its lack of story. For any of those who actually looked at the piece and took any time to consider any part other than "it didn't even have legs!!!!" (Somebody please look around the gamehead category and find one that does have legs!!!)(if we want to complain about its anatomical relevances let's say it's got a tail and no gamehead should ever have a tail!!!)
Having given adequate consideration one may have noticed the fact that the presentation expressed an undesireable species (feral Swine) uprooting another undesireable species (prickly pear cactus) and utilizing it as a food source. Ergo expressing a beneficial aspect of a quote:unquote undesireable species. If you also considered the flow of the root system above the "pig-on-a-stick" you might get the inclination of the eb and flow of life, i.e. The death of one lends to the life of another. But ofcourse let's not get all crazy and step back and think about a piece let's just focus on it's missing legs!!!

 

Holy chit James, you thought that all out prior to doing the mount and were able to convey that. Wow. I did not get all of that or any of it for that matter. Now that I know what you were intending, I appreciate that piece more than I did, but I have not seen it in person and the pictures I've seen did not portray the story well.

 

A piece with a story to tell , artistic balance and flow. Instead of interpreting the piece for what it is, all kish could do was insult the judges integrity and the taxidermist with some ridiculous comment about "tricking the judges".

 

Three bears, I learned this the hard way, in putting a competition piece together. The mount may be the best you have ever done but if it leaves the viewer hanging and they do not get what you are trying to say then you just will not have anything someone wants to look at. You should not have to explain it to the viewer.

 

The judges need to be tuned up a little
I agree with Caroline

 

Let's all be serious for a moment. If anyone thinks that every person is going to get the same interpretation or a complete interpretation or that everyone is going to get even a similar interpretation then we are kidding ourselves!!!
Let me be the first to tell you that many many times I find myself explaining what I was tryin to depict. Is that due to the fact that I'm a less than adequate purveyor of artistry or can we lend some of the blame on the open mindedness of the observer or lack there of??? I'm fairly certain there is plenty of blame to go around.

 

I agree with you James, we all work differently. I believe that those that truly master art actually master how most viewers will see a piece or interpretate it. We all compose pieces with something in mind and hope that anyone that views it will see what we were portraying but often fail to reach as many as we wish. I remember a saying that went something like this, it ain't art until someone doesn't like it.

 

Carolin Said nothing about "tuning" the judges,

Interesting coming from someone who doesn't even attend conventions much less compete in one.
So how do you propose we "tune" a judge Monte? Artistic expression and interpretation is opinion and purely up to the individual looking at the piece.

I said back in the beginning of this Kish has a right to his opinion about taxidermy - art just like everyone else and I respect that , but he crosses the line when he makes personal attacks against the judges , board members ,the taxidermists that run the shows and who create the mounts. He thinks he can hide them through cute little word games but I guess he doesn't realize we all see the insults.

 

Jerry I did not mean the statement about judges was tied to what Caroline said

 

Mr Kish, I believe I have gotten your message but, could you please embellish me with what your motivation is? That still eludes me.