Taxidermy’s underlying purpose is to preserve and display the beauty of nature, and the goal of traditional taxidermy is often recreating the illusion of natural life in the mount. Instead, I use the mount to blur the line between science and art, and as the canvas to explore the concepts of life, death, and humanity’s strife and pleasure. Slightly erotic and transgressive in nature, the myth surrounding these creatures in my drawings, prints, and sculptural work is cryptically laid out, up to the viewer to reconstruct. Combining the use of gold leafing in reference to kintsugi methods and etchings printed on leather I embrace the “beauty in the broken”. Using ethically sourced taxidermy that is often considered waste by the industry or society, I celebrate the life of the creature by not trying to erase the flaws on each of them but make them the focus. The elevation of what is deemed undesirable gives us permission to appreciate the marks life leaves on us, and the journey we all take, both human and animal, towards death.
Ashley Shaul is a Detroit-based nationally and internationally exhibiting artist and educator working under her studio Gilded Coyote. Shaul received her BA focused in traditional illustration, printmaking, and art history from Columbia College Chicago, and her MFA in Print Media from Cranbrook Academy of Art. She is a professor of drawing, painting, sculpture and art history at Oakland Community College, Henry Ford College, and Schoolcraft College, and has over a decade of experience within the museum industry and the care of their collections. Shaul has received numerous awards for her work, including 1st place titles in Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York for her taxidermy pieces. Artworks of hers can be found in the permanent collections of the Janet Turner Print Museum, the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, and in various private collections throughout the US.