Beth Fawkes Tobin lecture

Beth Fawkes Tobin held a lecture at the Marshall Center on March 24th about taxidermy as a form of art. I came into the lecture prepared to feel squeamish and disgusted by the fact that dead animals were used as art. However, Tobin left the gross parts out, for the most part. She did include a section where she read a do it yourself book on how to properly prepare and make taxidermy. Several people groaned when she described the killing and draining but it was not that bad. She showed several works of taxidermy, including taxidermy of shells. This part was intriguing because I never thought that shells were a form of taxidermy. The amount of work that went into cleaning and preparing the shells to be used was also very interesting. I always thought that shells were simply cleaned with soap and water but Tobin named quite a few dangerous chemicals used to clean the shells, which took a few days as well. Tobin stated that taxidermy was a form of art for women to make. This was interesting because as a woman, I could not stand the thought of draining a skinning an animal. Although, the animals were not wasted; the woman cooked the animals’ flesh for meals, which I guess makes it okay because absolutely no part of the animal was wasted.
What I also found interesting was in the questions part of the lecture where a professor at the school shared information about a man who used human fetuses as taxidermy and made very controversial art work.