Just got in from competition, This took "Peoples Choice Award", "Taxidermists Choice Award" and "The Presidents Award"

The Baby Bongo took "First Place" and "Best of Catagory Highest Scoring Large Game Animal" in Competition.

Just something a little different.












2 week old Bongo, died in captivity.

Great looking, and very unique. Congrats on the awards.

Dennis, are you a taxidermist turned welder, or a welder turned taxidermist?

Beautiful work, they look alive!

A Taxidermist that had to learn to weld.
www.artistryofwildlife.com

Congrats on the hard earned wins Dennis. I know the competition was stiff. Beautiful mounts.
David

Outstanding!

I had the extreme pleasure of having a booth next to Dennis at a consumer sport show last weekend. The Taxi comp was upstairs and the consumer sports were on the ground level. No offense, Dennis, but your taxidermy skills far outweigh your photography! The mounts were breathing for Christ's sake! You could see blood pump through the veins. Well done, indeed.

Hey, if you still want my book let me know and I'll send it out.

dan

Outstanding as always Dennis!

Dennis,

Love the movement on that elk! The juvenile bongo is really a nice clean looking mount. Well deserved blue! How did the lion and the elk do in the taxidermy competition? Michigan doesn't have their results up yet.

Michigan has been asking Chris to judge and give a seminar for the past 4-5 years. Think we may be out there next year or 2010. Looking forward to meeting you. Did you ever get to Tucson and javie hunt?

Kind Regards,
Mary

congradulations, really outstanding.

Thanks Jim and Mary, and ALL the REST
Competition was WTC AND NATIONAL LEVEL, no curve Judging. I mean about half the mounts in PRO got NOTHING.
Just got two reds, 2nd places,for it, really sucks it deserved more and the Public and taxidermists let the judge KNOW IT! by the votes.
When is the last time you saw a second place mount WIN BOTH peoples choice awards?
The Judge to me didn't carry a whole of of credentials and I feel his judging was partly do to his inadequacies of that, It was a shame that those inadequacies influenced his judging.

Mary, Michigan "IS looking for Judge for mammals next year. I'll put a word in. Jan and Jean aren't to happy with the situation here in Michigan on this show.

To be BLUNT, I had a 1st place PROFESSIONAL MOUNT, judged at a WTC Masters criteria, Given a second place ribbon, by a thrid rate judge.
Can't sum it up any better. BUT THE PEOPLE SPOKE FOR MY MOUNT !!!!

I even had points taken off because no septum in the Mckenzie new elk cast lip system, and the fact that in that cast one side of the back lowwer lip is just a bit lower than the other,and more points off because he stated They put the toungue in the wrong place, and it's permanetly mounted in the cast you can't get it out, they all come to me in the same palce but it must be wrong?? you think??? in a Mckenzie cast lips system Elk Mount and nose.
I didn't know I was competing in the masters.

Please feel free to contact Michigan and offer Chris's services
DENNIS

very nice!

Dennis,

I have seen that happen too many times at shows! I have already heard a bit of rumbling about the judging at the show. Seems harder and harder to get a good judge and consistancy to boot! I agree with Inchumuk (Henry Witchers)100% that there should be a 3' distance rule for judging. Flashlights looking for pinholes,etc. can be a bit extreme. I am shocked they knocked you for a precast mouth(in your division)...that is just absurd!! If Jan and Jean are upset with the judging...that speaks volumes! You are absolutely correct the public loved the piece and that is who we all aim to please.

Scott and Dawn Derenski are like family. Dawn and I went to taxidermy school together in '88. So we have an open invitation for Chris to judge whenever he can manage to get out of the shop for the week long convention.(funny it doesn't seem as long to him if we're out hunting..lol) That is one long convention you have in Michigan! I know the WTC adds a few days on.

Take care Dennis...love seeing your work!

Kind regards,
Mary

Dennis,
This is THE reason I quit going to competitions. In the end the ribbons mean nothing, if the public (customer) likes it then you've won first. Mary, you are right on target, I had a blue ribbon sheep judged at state level and when I took it to nationals the judge pulled the hair apart on the back with both hands and said OH, I can see stitches! I just went huh? This kind thing is not new it's been going on for years. I mean look at Dennis' mount, how could that piece possibly win anything less than first place?

Those mounts look fantastic and have great life. Who was the Judge?

I have seen many "People's Choice" awards go to 2nd, even 3rd place winners. Also seen 2nd place get the taxidermists choice awards; at the state level. People choose what they think looks the best. Judges choose what they deem has the best detail, under a flashlight, in every nook and cranny. It is a whole different game.

At our show, I get a kick out of taxidermists who put so much weight on their show piece. They spend tons of extra time on their show mounts and many have a nack for it. Yet their regular customer mounts are just average.

I agree with Jerry. If the customer likes it and his friends like it then that should satisfy one's ego.

Again, awesome mounts above, with huge levels of creativity. Great job.

Jerry , Thanks and your right I won it ALL
with a Majority VOTE , not some judge that is technically anal retentive. I didn't enter MASTER DIVISION. I'm not that good, but I am An artist that loves what he does and puts every breath and bead of sweat into my ART and that is what I do.
These judges, just some not all , sorry for that, loose the entire essence of what a TRUE ARTIST can create, when they get out their flashlights and microscopes and pick it apart.
I had comments on my score sheet that stated..."Is this elk falling over or running?"
"The two pieces don't work together well"
This judge in my opinion was either intimidated by the work or felt inadequate and had to over scrutinize the work because he had to PROVE how good he was or thinks he is.
The Award I brought home was not tangible, it was comments from thousands of people that talked about this mount for days and still are. The people that searched me out, engineers and hunters and even grandma's that wanted to meet and talk to me about it.
I try not only to create a lifelike mount but to ride the edge of the envelope as top what is possible and bring flow , movement, life and a story to my ART.
To all those that have posted great comments to me, I read them all and that is why I do what I do, for you to enjoy!

Thanks MC
It is justthat, a client commercial piece
A weeks work 50 hours.
I only compete with client mounts.
Client don't care what you can and do for competitons they want to know what your going to do withg their mounts.

Dennis, your work is an inspiration to all taxidermists. I enjoy your posts on taxi net, you're very talented and have a lot of knowledge to share. Keep up the good work.

Pardon my ignorance, but can a mountain lion take down an elk?

I love the mount.

For those of you who don't know me, let me explain that I don't have a dog in this fight. I never compete above my own SMALL state show, but I've been in and run major competitions so I know a few things about competition. Dennis knows that I absolutely adore his work and I firmly believe that his creativity is beyond reproach. I love Dennis and I love the way that he puts his heart and soul into his work.

But I'm a pragmatic person who just can't force myself to blow roses up someone's ass when I find some flawed logic.

Michigan was not just ANY state show. It was a rather large show (huge by Delaware standards) and many of the state shows are competitive with the National and World Shows (Pennsylvania just held their show with over 350 pieces, thousands of dollars in prize money and every major taxidermy sponsor represented).

Every taxidermist creates their own "ugly babies" (ever seen any parent show off his kid and tell someone it was ugly?). HOWEVER, when we step into the world of competition, you are asking someone else to tell you that your baby is just plain assed butt ugly. Competitons are a whole different realm of this industry.

All of us know (though some are hesitant to ever admit it) that we have mounted some pieces that just are plain dicked up. Even when they were finished, we KNEW it wasn't to the standards that we expected of ourselves. Yet the customer had an orgasm when he saw it. Suddenly, we stoke our egos and convince ourselves that even our bad work is damned good.

That's COMMERCIAL WORK.

Now COMPETITION.

When we work a competition piece, we put our heart and soul into it. We show up with what we feel is the highest level of our abilities. Then we turn our ugly baby over to some person who is being paid to tell me it's ugly. Then when he does, we find that he's a common SOB who shouldn't be allowed to stir glue in our shops.

Judging is a thankless job and woe be until that poor soul who doesn't happen to have name notoriety. Still, he's paid to judge on TECHNICALITY. Every competition is judged on technicality and MANY people won't compete simply because they can't take someone telling them that their mount isn't TECHNICALLY correct and their baby is ugly. Now that's fine, but then that person has absolutely no right to complain and imply that ribbons are "useless".

If you looked at the World Show, you saw a multispecies piece done by Ray Hatfield that was absolutely breathtaking. The moose pair chasing black bears up trees in a willow thicket got the eye of every competitor. The mount got a second place ribbon.

I've seen pieces that didn't even ribbon getting "People's Choice". That award is given by the viewers, not by judges, and as Alex Mearhead said, "People's Choice is given to the guy who strangles the most kittens" when a pair of kittens won that award. Then imagine a mount like a RECREATED Panda bear wins a World Championship on TECHNICALITY and then wins a People's Choice Award. That has to be the pinnacle of competiton.

Perhaps Dennis' piece was judged too strictly for a piece in the Professional Division, but if I had entered a piece in that division, I'd have been upset that I was competing against him with a piece that compared to my work should have been in the Masters Category.

Hi George, I'm working on getting into that masters level, You tell that Crazy Canadian you have at your place, if he hasn't left yet, that I'm looking forward to learning from him and pleased and honored that he would have me.

It's time to quit relying on my "Shock and AWE"
and find a way to convince that one Judge that is going to pick me piece apart to "Kiss My Butt" by doing technially what I do now with mnotion and flow.
I'm going to go for the gold ring.It's about time I truely put together a competiton piece. This Canadian for two years has seen something in me that I have not seen in myself and he has talked enough to make we not try but do it!
I have to put my rebel attitude aside and go into their world,(The Judges)and play by thier rules and I don't like to loose.
Take care old man, say hi to the wife, hope she's doing well, and tell that Kanuck he better leave somem time open in August. I'm on my way
Your friend
DENNIS

P.S. Yep, everyone has ugly babies, even me, but some know that those need to be kept in the closet.

Walker says he's got the time blocked off for you but he's not sure if you're up to the task. LMAO. We do have strange but wonderful friends, don't we? LOL

Irish Paul, Absolutely; a Cougar/Mountain Lion/Puma/Catamount can and does kill mature Elk. They prefer easier prey; small to medium dogs, piglets, fawn's, calves etc., but Deer are their norm. However, they never pass up a good deal, and during the winter when Elk are most vulnerable, Cougar will kill Elk. They look for any weakness: deep snow, weak or injured and the sick. In Africa, the Caracal (African Lynx) will kill mature Bushbuck and Impala on occasion. Although they're mainly bird hunters, domestic Sheep are a favorite. The little "tabby" cat that lives in so many homes across north America would make a meal out of any of us if the were just bigger.
LDK

George,

You know I greatly admire your blunt veracity, I highly respect your array of wisdom and have always felt a great trust in confiding in you on many issues over the years. I had been discerning on a response to this thread prior to your post. Although I have been in the industry 20 years, I have only competed a handfull of times, (in the beginning and placed high 2nd's in the professional division at State and National level) then I found my niche in rugmaking which was conducive to my lifestyle as an involved and active parent.

I have been very involved with taxidermy associations and show/conventions. I worked the competition room for 10 years at my State convention and held various offices within the association, piloted a still successful State and National Youth program for conventions and my husband is a master taxidermist, judge, seminar presenter and form sculptor so I do feel I am qualified to add my 2cents.

When I questioned Dennis how the cougar/elk piece scored under judgement I sparked the responses regarding competition. I personally feel competitions, continuing education seminars, and how to articles in trade magazines are the only way to improve the quality of one's work. Granted there is a range of inconsistancies with judges as you are recieving one man or womans opinion which will vary, understandibly so. (You know as well as I there is a long list of judges and sometimes the bottom of the list is all that is available.) But when the score sheet information is in the competitors hands along with the information on successful techniques from the seminars, the competitor is at an advantage for improvement which is a win, win situation for him/her and their client.

With that being said, the point I was trying to make was, as my dear friend Henry Witchers Inchumuk, recent recipient of the only lifetime achievement award our industry has ever presented to an individual, has always stated 'there should be a 3' distance rule for judging'. Inchumuk feels, the flashlight induced deductions for pinhole or a hair out of place were not as important as the overall aesthetic appeal of the piece.

For many there is a vast difference between their commercial and competition work. For a select few...not much. Some can compete, attend seminars and research to no avail in improving their work as there are different levels of artists in our industry. Some can manipulate their hands to do as their brain sees, far too many cannot.

There is a great expense and a greater time commitment to compete. Many good taxidermists with successfull business' cannot justify spending the time and $ to simply hang a ribbon in their showroom. I can fully see their point and would never condemn them for their perspective. Ribbons don't pay the bills. Full freezers and proud, content clientele is any taxidermists 'blue ribbon'!

With my knowledge of anatomy (from 14 years of veterinary medicine) my many years in the competition room, working by my husbands side and my simple anal attidude for symmetry, I have spotted the minor faults a judge would deduct Dennis' pieces on, but the overall aesthetic appeal always outweighed them.

There is no doubt in my mind that the industry is going to be blown away by Dennis' work after his tuteledge under Ken!! I myself cannot wait to see the level this fine tuning is going to take him and his work to!

Kindest Regards,
Mary

quote:

I personally feel competitions, continuing education seminars, and how to articles in trade magazines are the only way to improve the quality of one's work

Great post Mary. I pretty much agree with everything you have said but I would add something to your quote above. There are more ways to improve one's work that do not involve any other people! Remember there were some great ones who had none of these things you listed to learn from. Carl Akeley, James L. Clark, Robert Rockwell, Coleman Jonas, etc..

For me there are really two basic elements to taxidermy aside from the business part. One is the techniques and the other is anatomy. The best way to learn techniques are from the examples you gave above as well as trial and error. The best way to learn anatomy is directly from the animals or from reference (and other people are often a bad reference). You have to be a student of both to be really good IMO.

The anatomy is the most important thing. There are so many different ways to do any of the small steps involved in a mount. What matters is that you KNOW what you are trying to achieve based on your knowledge of the anatomy. How you get there is less important. This is something that becomes a stumbling block to so many artists IMO. They are so caught up in trying to do something faster or the way they read so and so did it. There time would be better spent being a student to the animals. I feel this is the number one reason why the majority of taxidermy is bad taxidermy. The majority do not study animals and they get to a point in their profession where they stop learning.

One of the real greats, James L. Clark used to go to the zoo and draw what he saw for hours. Learning to draw teaches you to "see." It forces you to concentrate on "sections" of an animal. This is an extreme help when altering forms or just recognizing flaws in commercial forms. You can be inefficient, slow, and do "techniques" the hard way but if you know what the animal and its "parts" look like you can produce great works.

Don't get me wrong, you can learn a lot in a few hours at a seminar but it is mostly helpful regarding techniques, tools and products. People should be careful about learning anatomy from a person who may have it all wrong. Whenever possible I suggest taking a "seminar" from a carcass or live animal. Skin it, measure it, draw it, trace it, make study casts from it, color notes, etc..

It sounds corny but nature is the best teacher and the best judge.

Dennis, it is obvious that you are putting a lot of thought and work into your mounts and thinking outside the box. Despite any personal dissapointments you should be very proud of what you have achieved. Remember that you are your harshest critic, and with art, that is the way it should be. None of the great ones were ever satisfied. If you feel you have ever stopped learning, Quit!

Best wishes.

Grafton, that was a superb post. After a week with Ken Walker and having to make a lioness out of a lion form, I can tell you that there's NOTHING that will save you if you don't know the proper anatomy of a specimen. When you learn anatomy, the "artistic license" of the sculptor can be either worked with or eliminated. But with incorrect anatomy, hides never seem to fit "like a glove" in the way they do when the anatomy is done correctly.

Grafton,

Excellent post! Thank you for filling the hole I left in my post. Being solely a rugmaker it is an uneeded component to my specialty field, thus was overlooked. How silly of me as I see Chris using it in mounting, sculpting, and I hear him with critiques stating: reference, reference, reference!

You brought up many of the great icons of our industry and the fact that they had only the specimens themselves as instructors and the knowledge gained from anatomy observation...great point. I am a collector of old taxidermy books and the drawings, armatures,and hand made individual forms of these pioneers who had no catalogs to order supplies from, were simply art in themsleves.

'It sounds corny but nature is the best teacher and the best judge.' ...Doesn't sound corny at all, sounds profound to me!

Kind regards,
Mary

Yep ear butts took a hit,They suck, Your not telling me anything I don't know, My ears connections and rotation have always sucked, I knew it before the judging, but NOT finish work around the eyes. That was complimented.

Yep took the hit from the judge, ONE opinion.
We will see how it does in OHIO this weekend.
But this was mounted for the public to enjoy a story and some movement, I SICK of standing, lifeless, statues of taxidermy.
I was trying for the peoples choice award, presidents award and taxidermy choice award and swept them all !.
And it wasn't entered in a Masters division, so,
Yes,it has flaws everyhting does, the bigger the mount the easier to see them.
I'll do better next time for you, with the three wolves attacking another elk, and the bighorn flipping a cougar over it's back.

I don't care what the judges say Dennis, Very cool stuff, keep em coming.

Dogcather, It scored an 80 and 80 in Mich and in Ohio 88 and 89. It took all the voteable awards that they had, Taxidermists Choice Award, People Choice Best Mount, Peoples Choice Best of Show. Now that the shows are over I can get it out to the client and put the money in my pocket, That's what matters in the real world.Thaniks everyone
It is on the home page of my site
www.artistryofwildlife.com

Congratulations, they are great mounts. Maybe someone will explain ear butts someday?

Ann,

I guess ear butts does sound like odd terminology... . It is the group of muscles at the base of the ear that allows for the varied ear movements and connects the ear to the neck. Will hunt for a pic to post.

Here you go:

(picture from a Brad Eppley tutorial)


Congrats on the Ohio Show results Dennis!


Kind regards,
Mary