(bag crinkling) (scissors snipping) - I use organic materials in my art because I think that there's a lot of beauty and interesting elements in nature.

And building something that looks organic but isn't, but like putting it together in a way that looks natural I think is really interesting and beautiful.

(bright music) So I do a couple different things with the organic materials that I collect.

I make these intricate arrangements, and then I also do, like, jewelry.

When I'm making the arrangements in the jewelry, it's actually really cathartic.

I don't really think about anything, and that's probably why I like it so much.

It's very meticulous.

I don't have to focus on anything but what I'm working on.

And I actually love that my brain's blank during that time.

It's very relaxing.

I love every kind of art, (tattoo gun buzzing) and I will dabble in pretty much anything.

I really try to have a nice dichotomy in my work.

I'm pushing myself a lot further, and I think that my confidence in my art does show through.

It's like a relationship that never stops giving, you know?

Like the more I pour into it, the more it gives me.

(gentle upbeat music) (gentle upbeat music continues) (gentle upbeat music continues) Turn around, buddy.

Maybe I'll give him a nut.

Give me.

Thank you.

(parrot chattering) This is Porky.

He is my 10-year-old Amazon parrot.

He turns 11 May 27th.

He's a little ham.

He loves the camera apparently.

He's not bothered.

So yeah, we have Porky.

I have a bearded dragon.

He's 14 years old.

His name is Veserian.

I have a ball Python.

His name is Slithers.

He's six.

So, as a child, my grandma did buy me a lot of different exotic animals.

And then as a teenager I worked at a pet store for the better part of like two years, and I was the fish and reptile person.

But there was also birds, and, you know, I would work closely with these animals every day.

And I just saw that there was like more to them than people thought.

You know, there's an intelligence there that's like very interesting.

(gentle bright music) The focus of my art is like simple taxidermy.

I collect things from hiking or just from my family farm or even in my own garden.

I have bees from my garden.

They're quite small.

They're green iridescent bees.

Those are like a rare one.

I have turtle feet, a jar of Porky's feathers which I put into some stuff, a tiny little whole duck.

And he's from the South Shore Yacht Club.

And I've been collecting like dead bugs and wasp's nests and, you know, even before I knew that people appreciated them.

I think that it's just something that I've always loved.

I always loved animals, and it's just been something I've always been curious about.

And knowing that other people appreciate it too is really special to me.

I think about honoring each animal the whole time that I'm taking care of them or processing them.

It's preserving them in a way that I think suits them the best so that they can be admired for long after they've existed, anything that makes you think about it a little bit.

Like, it looks normal to your eye when you're first looking at it, but then when you look a little deeper, it conveys thought.

In today's world, everything's about instant gratification, and art's a really slow burn.

It can give people an outlet to really enjoy and think about things differently than they might have before.

Perfect.

I get mixed reactions.

I get just flat-out disgust, but then I get a lot of like interest.

It's like one or the other.

Either you're really into it, or you're not.

People really appreciate certain elements of my taxidermy work.

They really like that it looks natural.

You know, I've worked really hard to have a nice variety of elements to put in the domes and in the shadow boxes to make them look cohesive but also like, yeah, like you just pulled them out of nature.

They look like they could move.

I think that the best comment I ever got was a mom who did not like it, but she said that it looked like I was bringing them back to life.

When I am open to my inner creativity, like the things that I create, they like make people think, you know?

I always try to think of people's reactions to them, and they get excited, but they also like are confused.

And I enjoy that mixed reaction 'cause I'm evoking feelings in people, and I think that's beautiful.

- [Announcer] Thanks for watching "The Arts Page."

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