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The Dead Room

Copyright ©2008 by Anne Vinnola

As a little girl I began an artistic journey to expressing myself through my home, in my room. My mother painted my room light blue with white ruffles for curtains. It was pretty and appreciated, but as I grew into my teens I wasn’t sure Mom knew how to create the room I felt would show off my personality. Horse pictures, Navy Blue Angel posters and clips from teen magazines were much more to my taste. 

When I married and moved to various houses I loved to paint and decorate in my own personal style. I was happy with my decorating and was thankful my husband usually liked everything I did.

One gorgeous fall day after visiting the Denver Zoo, my husband, whose hunting and fishing trips I tolerated announced to me that he wanted to go to taxidermy school.

The conversation went something like this. “Honey, I have been looking into attending taxidermy school, what do you think of that?” My reply as my mind raced through the pictures of taxidermy I had seen, was not pleasant. “Ewww, are you crazy?”  “Who would buy that stuff and where do you think you are going to put it?”

My view of taxidermy was of the dark, creepy old drawing rooms like those portrayed on old Hitchcock movies or covered in dust as was the fish in my grandfathers’ garage. I did not like it and it definitely did not align with my idea of a well decorated home.

I grudgingly went along with what he wanted to do, telling him that it would be a good hobby and if it could make some extra money for our new family that would be fine.

“This is the Dead Room,” I told him as we looked into our tiny den when he brought his first mounted pieces home. “Nothing dead leaves this room.” He was proud of his work and it was apparent that he was a very good taxidermist, but there would be no dead animals in my newly decorated living room. He could have one room to be his “man cave.”

Within two years I found out just what an incredible artist my husband is and how appreciative so many people are of quality work. Taxidermy is a thriving art form, and isn’t just for tacky rednecks and animal hating trophy collectors as I had envisioned at first.  Most of the people I have met while being involved in this industry are highly committed to wildlife conservation issues and ethical hunting practices.

The more I learned about this art form, the more I came to appreciate the beauty of it and when we built our home in the mountains, I had walls and shelves built to incorporate some of the beautiful work my husband had done.  We had a wall for our North American animals and one for the African. We had a ledge for a mountain lion.

The mounts in our home are not all considered trophies by any means, but are tributes to the animals and memories of successful family trips. We believe in using the whole animal when we hunt and taxidermy helps us to do that.

I was dragged kicking and screaming into this business, but was converted. I have helped teach many men and women how to decorate with their taxidermy regardless of the style of their décor. I have helped many women who came into our studio with the very same aversion to taxidermy I started with; learn to be proud of the men in their lives and the artwork they want to put in their homes.

When a national hunting magazine came to us to advertise, my husband told the editor that I would also be able to write an article about taxidermy and would they be interested? I wasn’t a writer, where did he get these ideas? They were interested and I was cast completely out of my comfort zone into the world of magazine writing.  I have been writing monthly articles for outdoor magazines for over 3 years since.  Writing for these publications has helped me find my feet as a writer and has given me a springboard to practice my craft.