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About the Artist
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Like so many boys growing up, I had always hoped to
someday be able to make a living doing what I enjoyed so
much......being outdoors, and anything having to do with nature. My
growing passion for animals in any form, and my obsession with fishing
built a foundation and a wonderful understanding to all the ways to
enjoy the outdoors and everything in it. I loved to draw and paint,
and spent countless hours learning to put what I had seen on paper.
Fish were a favorite subject and specimens were readily available at
the docks in Oyster Bay, LI. “Sagamore Hill”, Teddy Roosevelt’s
home was just around the corner, and it was there, after many trips to
view his trophies, that my interest in taxidermy spurred a lifelong
passion.
Trips to the American Museum of Natural History, the Bronx Zoo and
Coney Island Aquarium became very frequent, and I could not wait for
my next lesson from the Northwestern School of Taxidermy to arrive in
the mail. Road kills were never left without examination, and my
salvaged fly tying materials were steadily turning into a nice
collection of skins, tails, wings and feathers. |
By ninth grade, we moved from LI, NY to Cumberland, Maryland. Great
mountain fishing as well as turkey and deer hunting was everywhere in
Western Maryland, and I did as much as possible.
After graduation in 1971, I moved to Ocean City, Maryland and landed a
mate job on a charter boat and then a commercial long- liner. It was
there, that the thought of doing taxidermy for money first came to
mind. Countless offshore game fish mounts went to the freezers of
Pfluger and Reese, two well-known fish taxidermy studio’s in
Florida. It was then that I started to learn to mold fish. Winters
were spent hunting ducks and the wild Sika Deer of Assateague Island.
I had plenty of specimens to practice and learn on and knew then that
I wanted to open a taxidermy business.
In 1979, I moved from Ocean City to Kent Island, Maryland on the
eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay. This area was then a Goose
hunting mecca, and hunters from everywhere came to hunt the Canada and
Snow geese. Maryland’s eastern shore, is also known for its heavy
racked trophy Whitetail Deer.
That year, I opened Kent Island Taxidermy, and became a Maryland deer
checking station. I was off and running and there was no lack of work.
The combination of my fishing charter business and new taxidermy
business worked very well together.
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Besides my 100 ton ocean masters captains license, I was also a New
York State and West Virginia licensed guide. I ran sea duck hunting
trips on the Chesapeake during the fall hunting season and float trips
in my McKenzie River boat for Salmon, Steelhead and Trout in upstate
New York. Many of my clients hunted and fished worldwide and I learned
how important networking was to a successful business. This brought me
species from around the world, I became a licensed Importer /
Exporter, and the first USDA approved establishment in the state of
Maryland.
The opportunity to preserve so many diverse species has and continues
to be a very rewarding challenge. It had always been my intention to
maintain control over the technical and artistic aspects of taxidermy
and animal preservation.
From start to finish, it was my goal and has been to maintain a sole
proprietorship. Every completed trophy is totally done by me,
technically sound, anatomically accurate and artistically pleasing.
Anything is possible, and I look forward and enjoy pushing the limits
of “taxidermy”, as a respected art form. I love my job, and love
what I do...even after all these years...and look forward to many more
years of taxidermy, preparation and animal artistry. |
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