ABOUT THE TAXIDERMIST
Hi, my name is Jonathan Stanley. I grew up in Cleburne Texas, where I was surrounded by a hunting and fishing family. As a child I was always interested in birds and most especially waterfowl. It wasn't long before I realized that there was a wonderful world of art in the Taxidermy field. With three older brothers and a Father who were always out hunting, I had steady access to all sorts of game birds to mount. I think I actually completed my first mount at around the age of 10. It drove my mother nuts, I had dead birds in her freezer and that was just a big NO-NO. Little did she know that as soon as I got to where I was able to finish a mount and have it look like a bird I planned on adorning my bedroom with as many "dead ducks," as possible. Needless to say, my mother and I went round and round and around again. The years went by and many many many birds later my brothers started bringing me their extras from time to time. They went through this phase of having to have everything mounted, and to be honest I was a last resort, probably called upon when the bank account was low, cause they knew they would be getting free work out of me.
Everyone always told me that I had a knack for drawing birds and once I started mounting them all those drawings came in handy. As the years went by, I progressed into raising my own birds for reference and I think it was at that time that my mounts actually started to look like real birds. I would spend hours sitting outside watching my birds swim, eat, and have just a birdie of a day. I even remember sitting out in the freezing cold because I wanted to get some good reference photos of ducks sitting on ice. It took me nearly four hours before my birds would even get in the water much less sit on the ice. But in hindsight, I did get sick and was allowed to stay home and mount a bird the next day.
Its been a good twenty years now since I mounted my first bird and I like to think my work has progressed with those years of experience. Today, I have realized that people actually like my work and are willing to pay me to for the service. I never dreamed twenty years ago that I would be doing this as a source of income. I still don't consider myself a full time taxidermist as I like to take my time and spend hours upon hours getting just that right look or attitude that I desire.
I only have an interest in doing birds, waterfowl especially. Everyone says it would be wise to expand into other areas of taxidermy such as small mammals or shoulder mounts, but I just don't have the desire. I enjoy waterfowl and feel I can put out a better piece of work if I specialize in on particular area.
I enjoy creating habitat bases for my mounts and try to always incorporate some sort of animation to each and every mount. A bird standing on a log with no expression just isn't art to me. It's a bird on a stick. Some people are happy with that, I myself am not. It isn't uncommon for me to spend twice as long on the base as it is for the acutal bird itself.
Anywhow, I hope that you take the time to visit my gallery and view some of my work. Please be sure and check back often as I will be consistently updating the photos that I have here.
Take care and to the hunters, Happy Hunting.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Stanley