Thursday, December 29, 2011

unbearable

we didn't have enough room in the freezers for the coyotes, so we stored them outside in garbage bags. a few months passed before we got around to defleshing them for the bugs, so they acquired a great deal of mold and the skin became very tight.


armed with masks, the smell from the rotted flesh was still borderline unbearable. the skin was so tight from dehydration (they originally sat in the colorado sun for many months at a taxidermist farm before we picked them up) that it took 4 hours just to deflesh one.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Box of family memories

I spent over 150 hours on the following Christmas project. It's finally done.

Step 1: Find old VHS family videos. Hook up VCR to recordable DVD player and hit 'play' and 'record'. Repeat 30 times.

Step 2: Transfer Video_TS files to computer. Convert these files to .DV files in Toast Titanium. Import into iMovie. Export movie. Repeat 33 times.

Step 3: It took 10 DVDs to fit 33 movies. I made 8 copies of each DVD, totaling out to 80 DVDs. I'm very happy my computer didn't die.

Step 4: Design and create 7 packages.

Step 5: Drop them off at FedEx.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

melting

getting the frozen coyote ready to go into the beetles. if you put the carcass in without thawing it, you run the risk of drowning the beetles when it melts. it is ideal to let it melt in a sealed container to keep other bugs from contaminating the meat. dermisted beetles don't play well with others.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

1. a horse head in need of de-fleshing before putting it into the beetles. had been stored in a garbage bag for a couple of weeks before this process.
2. a great deal of flesh was removed from the skull.
3. the most interesting part of the process was removing the brains. here you will see that they had turned to a white paste and were easily scraped out of the brain cavity.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

coyote

Friday, September 9, 2011

horse project



Getting a horse skeleton ready for re-articulation is an intense process. The excitement, stimulation and overall energy pulsating from the whole process left us sore, exhausted and mentally foggy.

The following photos show a brief over view of the process. For the less faint at heart, a video of the defleshing process is available here: Horse Carving Video



7:30am: The young Palamino
died by collicking and
we picked it up about
16 hours later.


10am: The Element had the
trailer backed up to
the horse at an angle
and I pulled the horse
out by the hind legs
onto the trailer by
my front tow hooks.


10:30am: We drove up into
National Forest out
of the public's eye.
It took about 8 hours
to deflesh the entire
horse.




8pm: Here is the ribcage
and vertebrae intact.
This was the hardest
piece to get into the
freezer.

8:30pm: 9 bags of bones,
plus the vertebra. Not much
of the 1100 pound horse
is left.


10pm: Unfortunately, the
head didn't fit in the
garage freezer, so
here it sits with the
popsicles and frozen
green beans.

Friday, September 2, 2011

release.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

life unlocked

the following audio files come from the pages of "life unlocked". the words ring so true that i wanted to have them available at a moment's notice. written by srinivasan pillay and read by yours truly:

Anxious Attachment

Avoidant Attachment

Friday, August 5, 2011

frozen embryo

fried. poached. boiled. scrambled. what does an egg look like when it's frozen? the best way to find out is to freeze it and cut it open with a hack saw.

i was hoping to see a clear fluid surrounding the yoke. Turns out the egg looks just like it would if it were boiled. I would like to find a fertilized egg and try the same experiment.





Thursday, July 7, 2011

sylvilagus cuniculus


this experiment was another attempt to
extract bones through boiling.
unfortunately, baby bones can't
handle high temperatures.
they turned to dust in my fingers.
this photo shows the rabbit going
into the hot bath after being
skinned and gutted. it is missing
its feet because i used the pelt
for an experiment in taxidermy.

columba livia domestica


is it true that the only
difference between a pigeon
and a dove is there color?
sounds like another case
of racism. if i find a dead
dove, i'll show you they
have the same exact insides
as the pigeon.

my mind is dead.


either my mind has broken down
or i have finally woken up.

chemical imbalance?
a glimpse of enlightenment?
underlying physical illness?
a dying brain?
a growing brain?
vitamin deficiency?


Thursday, June 9, 2011

some things

some things are so awesome that my stomach gets queasy.
like info graphics about your life: feltron.com/ar10_01.html

Thursday, May 26, 2011

no time for death.

Death is frightening evidence that we do not have control over everything.

"My Lord, night has come
You close my eyes before the day
And me, I'll paint once again
Paints for you
On the earth and in the sky."
- Marc Chagall

Monday, May 23, 2011

fan mail

My very first piece of fan mail.
The cover design Mr. Perkins is referring to is here.

'You wasted no time in attempting to insult/antagonize Steve Bach and 57% of Springs' voters with your lame, photoshopped May 19 edition…. so sly and cowardly…. your tactic against all the conservatives you hate so dearly. Better off to fear those who buy ink by the barrel - except that Steve Bach had the guts to tell you guys to cram it, and go print whatever nonsense you want to, like the pothead left-wing joke of a rag that you are! I had predicted an image of Steve Bach's head transplanted onto a body wearing a "wife beater t-shirt", holding a beer (Coors?!) in one hand, but I guess you are more "juvenile" than that. You would have done something similar if Skorman had won….. yeah, sure, I know. You could have depicted Skorman in a ridiculous gold suit, at the gay pride parade - no need for photoshopping!

Do you even get paid for the tripe you create, or are you just a bitter, "frustrated artist" and "useful idiot"? The Independent should publish the wages it pays, and see if Hightower would approve!

There is a reason that your insulting, contrived image is obviously not Steve Bach's body. You don't have to be one of his wives or anyone else who has ever seen him with his shirt off to know what that reason is, but since you (Sally Piette) are definitely "not the sharpest tool in the shed", I will just let you scratch your mangy liberal head over that one, as you try to think for a change. Hint: One doesn't need to be an "artist" (or an Adobe hack like yourself) to quickly spot the reason, either.

It must be so painful for you dwell here in this fortress of intolerance - Colorado Springs! The "Naked Mole Rat of Diversity" lost by 14 percentage points! Did you cry and gnash your teeth that night?

As you read this, photoshopped images I have created of YOU are being circulated, wide and far, across the internet… those satirical and obviously photoshopped images depict you as a sniper, a naked "performance artist", a vandal, a roadside bomber, a poisoner, the "wife beater", and much more…… all of my images convey the theme that you delight in causing damage without purpose or wit. The "Nihilistic Leftie" - my term…. learn to search for it!

And so, you witless twit, I commend you to your next (vapid and mindlessly anti-conservative) "art project"!'



Thursday, May 19, 2011

swallow a tongue

i have come to realize that it is better to keep quiet. one seems more respectable and people are more likely to pay attention when the silence is occasionally broken.

i really despise anyone with a diarrhea mouth because i can't stand the noise. i also can't take the excess information. a childhood habit still haunts me. i convinced myself in an afternoon that the human brain can only hold so much.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

dermestid beetle setup

I found that owning a dermestid beetle colony is well worth the effort.
They do next to perfect work and don't need much attention.

1. First, I posted a request on Craigslist for a free broken chest freezer and quickly found one. For small projects, this size does the trick, but the biggest piece I can comfortably get in there is a large mammal's skull.

2. The most expensive part of the project setup is the temperature control: $45. The heat lamp plugs into this and keeps the temp around 85-90F. I keep an extra thermometer in the freezer to make sure it is staying accurate.

3. Purchase beetles. I found a supplier of beetles a few hours away on ebay. I would say that 500 are enough to start and they run around $20. If you constantly feed them, they will quickly flourish to the thousands.
4. I water them with a spray bottle every week and give them cracked hard boiled eggs if I don't have any carcasses. They seem to really thrive on the eggs. Funny enough they like soy hot dogs too and REALLY enjoy leftover Thanksgiving turkey.
5. It takes about 2 days for a small bird to be COMPLETELY clean with about 2,000 active beetles.
6. When the beetles have finished, I set the bones aside so that the majority of bugs will leave the bones and head back to the main colony. This way, there are very few bugs killed in the succeeding freezing process (necessary so that no beetles hitch a ride into the house during the re-articulation process).