Gomez De Molina has an incredible imagination. He weaves these fantastic creatures into existence from bits and pieces. His taxidermy is whimsical, creative, and yes, illegal. If you look at many of these pieces you may be able to pick out some random parts of endangered species. Purchased off the black market for his work, they ultimately led to his downfall. According to this article at beautifuldecay.com, he plead guilty back in 2012 and was sentenced to 20 months in prison.
What an incredible waste and a shame. His imagery didn’t require the parts to be of exotic animals. He could have probably only used roadkill to create incredible works of art, but instead he chose to support the black market risking the importation of rare diseases and helping those that hunt endangered species.
You can read a bit more about De Molina and see a few more pictures on his website.
0 thoughts on “Insane Taxidermy Leads Artist to Prison”
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“he chose to support the black market risking the importation of rare diseases and helping those that hunt endangered species.”
I have very little sympathy for this person.
I hold very little sympathy for your attitude.
It is odd for me to see people in the maker community so blindly supporting the status quo. I thought this movement centered on doing things better and openly.
Yes he is a criminal and he is serving the sentence for that crime but to go out and condemn him for his actions without at consideration of why he is a criminal is just small minded.
His approach was interesting and no his pieces didn’t need to use proscribed animals but a community that should know as well as this one how easily something can be vilified simply by scaring the masses should have a little more understanding.
Rather than attacking him we should be lamenting that someone as talented as this could be led to ruin over something so arbitrary.
Killing rare and endangered animals for any reason is generally considered a bad thing. To do so to make monstrous pieces of “art” is even worse.
I disagree with everything you have written in response to my post.
Anyone who killed either directly or by proxy a living being, especially an endangered living being in order to create a frankenstinean pastiche of the lives that once were, is in my opinion not so much deserving of understanding as contempt.
I am far from blind on this issue. I don’t need to know his though processes any more than I need to know those of an ivory poacher with regard to what led to his crime.
We hold the lives of the lesser beings we share this planet with awfully cheaply. When I see someone treat the rarest of them as input material for his “art” I find it disgusting.
Animal poaching is a nasty ugly business. People who support it knowing what it is, are criminals I have as little sympathy for as I would for a drug dealer. They too destroy.
If you have more to say, paste the link first. Then come talk to me some more about how “we should be lamenting that someone as talented as this could be led to ruin over something so arbitrary.”
ww.tusk.org/userfiles/image/poaching/_med/poached-elephant.jpeg
I posted this, I don’t know why it calls me “Guest”. Also, add a “w” before the link, otherwise the pic posts here directly and frightens children. (click then add the w in the title bar when the error page shows)
I haven’t actually commented on an article before, but thought I should on this one. Why in the world would we want to celebrate and support this man and his work? It’s not even like the materials and methods of obtaining them have people fighting for a path to legality for them and they’re considered wrong purely in the eyes of the law. Please consider, Caleb, that if you need to write, “What an incredible waste and a shame,” as a disclaimer; perhaps you shouldn’t be including this type of work in Make.
All the best.
Not everything worth reporting is worth supporting. Perhaps the disclaimer should come earlier, but I think the article has a place here.
I support him, definitely. With his art, he is giving exposure to this problem. Instead of just commenting on a blog, he takes part of the problem. For me it is completely unfair to condemn him. He is helping much more than us to warn authorities and population.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCEQyCkwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DGlQKinJdK1U&ei=51sPVJ2UM4nm8AGmlIHQDw&usg=AFQjCNHeb0UGFOuWLcPUugG-PceuuwTPJQ&sig2=-CDlNiHBU2w2RsmPXhufDw&bvm=bv.74649129,d.b2U
This has been covered.