Apart from painting, I’ve never really had a hobby that’s obsessed me throughout my life.
Back in my younger days I did the usual “geeky” stuff like…*cough… play Role Playing Games, and I still dip in and out of comic collecting to the extent that I’ve got a ton of them stored safely away in protective sleeves inside special acid-free boxes………..yep, I’m that guy!
More recently, however, the spectre of a possible future “obsession” has been tapping at my shoulder.
It all began when we bought a budgie from the local pet shop.
We called him “Chirpie”, and we loved him very much indeed.
The fact that he didn’t eat very much, move, or indeed “Chirp” a single note didn’t seem to matter at first, but it became a bit more of a concern when this strange behaviour continued, and a couple of months had quickly flown by……which was a hell of a lot more more than “Chirpie” had done!
Dearest “Chirpie”…who was originally going to be called “Poe”
after the author Edgar Allen Poe.
Until I realised Poe’s famous poem was actually “The Raven”.
Stupid Andy
Editor’s note:
The above story is, of course, absolute nonsense. However, it is marginally more interesting than me writing “One day I bought a stuffed crow.”
Anyway, as soon as I pulled that crow out of the box that it arrived in I was hooked.
If I saw any poor deceased animals on the side of the road (I live on the West coast of Scotland….there’s a lot of that kind of thing around here) I’d think “I bet that would look great stuffed!”; the fact that I don’t know any taxidermists was the one thing that would stop me pulling over and bundling the poor “whatever it is!” into the back of my car. That and my wife and kids, of course.
Then I found the website of Amanda Sutton, which you can visit here.
Amanda does some absolutely beautiful work inspired by the Victorian taxidermist Walter Potter; creating steampunk themed works of art that look amazing.
For a collection of creatures that, by their very nature, are well and truly dead, they have so much life to them.
I love them!
Click for a bigger image
So I put crayons to paper and immediately asked her if she’d do a commission for me.
Some time ago I did a pencil rough of a Victorian, Superhero rat, which ended up looking more “Sneaky” than “Superhero”.
I coloured him up, emailed him to Amanda and asked if she’d like to make him for me. She said “Yes!”
I can’t wait to see what she comes up with, and hope that she might do some more commissions in the future.
So, stop what you’re doing and go and take a look at her site.
Go on….off you go!
andyelkerton.wordpress.com 