Adele Morse: For my taxidermy, the inspiration comes directly from the animal. I don’t think “today I want to make a weasel magician.” I have a weasel then I prepare it and then I think “this guy, this guy is a born magician.”
Image via Adele Morse Taxidermy
I can’t think of many people who wake up one day and decide they want to skin and stuff dead animals. What made you want to start?
AM: Well, when I was a kid, my mum used to take me to Cardiff museum and they have loads of taxidermy, or at least used to. I remember the more I went there, the older and shabbier it all looked. I just fell in love with the place. For me, I loved animals so it was a way of accessing them. I would never be able to know what it felt like to stand in front of a grizzly bear, or imagine myself in comparison to a tiger. It takes all the caveman instinct of fear away and allows you to see the beauty in the animal on a purely aesthetic level. Plus, I have a really vivid imagination, so to me those animals may as well have been alive.
It is well known that you’re a vegetarian taxidermist. Was the vegetarianism a reaction to taxidermy, or were you a vegetarian before you became a taxidermist?
AM: I became vegetarian when I was about 14, so quite a while before I started doing taxidermy. People still find it strange. I grew up in a religious Welsh family, my grandmother insisted that wafer thin ham didn’t count as meat. To this day I think they still think it’s a phase after more than a decade. For me to work all day with an animal and then to stop and then eat a chicken would be weird. For me animals aren’t food, they are other species. There is plenty of stuff I can eat without anything dying.
Image via Adele Morse Taxidermy
I read that Stoner Fox was originally made for a school project. What kind of school were you attending at the time, and how many taxidermy projects did you have under your belt before you decided to attempt a fox?
AM: Hah, yeah it’s actually a Masters course, but it’s the Royal Academy of Arts schools in Picadilly. It was the first and last time I used an animal as a material. I don’t show my taxidermy as art because I think that puts more importance on me and my idea rather than the animal itself. I had this idea that I wanted to make a piece that looked like a little human boy in a Halloween fox costume but I wanted the lines to be blurred. As the process went on the original image slipped further and further away. I had done quite a lot of small animals that I dry preserved, so this was my first attempt at a fox, and also at tanning. I ran out of time, the fox was old when I got it and smelt so bad. I just tried to do the best of a bad job basically so he could be salvaged and not thrown away. The fox’s head had been crushed completely so I couldn’t repair his face enough to do a traditional looking mount. I just remember trying for to make it work, then I just sat him down in the position he is in now with myself mirroring him, defeated. I figured it was time to stop.
Why do some people view Stoner Fox as a symbol of Russian political dissent?
AM: This is a question I will never know the answer to. From my time in Russia it seems that lot of Russian people feel something familiar when they look at the fox. Some sadness or that same feeling I had that day when I was making him maybe. I got misquoted as saying it was because I thought all Russians were “sad and drunk” this obviously A) is not something I would ever say and B) caused a massive reaction from Russians--rightly so.
Image via Adele Morse
When we first started talking, you mentioned that there was a rumor about how the taxidermist behind Stoner Fox was tripping on acid when they made the piece. Have you ever heard of anyone in the taxidermy community intentionally taking drugs so that they can trip balls while stuffing and mounting an animal?
AM: I have never heard even a rumor of this. I don’t think doing acid and then doing taxidermy would be good for your mental health, though. I am always hyper aware of turning into Norman Bates so this is the last thing I would do. If this is what happens when I do taxidermy sober…. imagine if I was on acid.
Are there any other fun rumors about the creator of Stoner Fox?
AM: Well I heard one that he was a drug dealer and mafia lord, almost all the rumors involved me being some kind of dangerous man. When I was in Russia the politicians were saying that I was a prostitute, a pedophile and a drug dealer. I don’t even know if anyone in the history of the world has embodied those three things at once. The same man tried to organize a “march of the dogs” to come eat the fox. He is the same guy that brought in the Anti-Gay propaganda law--that says it all really.
Image courtesy of Adele Morse
What’s the coolest thing a fan has done for you?
AM: So many amazing things! Loads of artwork, which I love. There were soft toys, earrings, and t-shirts made. But by far the best thing ever and the most surreal was when I was in Russia doing a talk. Two guys were there and they wanted me to sign their arms. We got to talking and it turns out they had flown from around Siberia, they said the flight was 6 hours, they had one hour to see me then they had to get the 6 hour flight back. They had flown further to see me than I was London. This was probably one of the most crazy moments. Also, a little girl who was about 12 had a sketch book with photos of me and clippings, I don’t feel like its been that long since I was a 13 year old girl and I used to do the same thing. I very nearly cried because I’m not a cool singer, or a model or some Instagram girl, or something--it seemed so progressive for her to look up to me as a female taxidermist. I don’t think I will ever forget that.
What’s your favorite thing about being a taxidermist?
AM: The moment the eyes go in. Suddenly something comes back to life and I feel like a Magician. Unless it goes wrong--then I want to die! It’s the worst feeling. Its like dropping a one of a kind vase that you can never ever remake but even more important because it’s not a piece of decoration; it was a living breathing animal.
Don't forget to visit Adele Morse Taxidermy to see more of Adele's work. Finally, follow Adele on Twitter if you want information on the taxidermy classes she will offer in the near future!
