The Road Kill Stylist
Edwardsville, IL
About three weeks ago, Jessica May, who just completed her first year of graduate studies in the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville art and design program, started dressing roadkill in pet and baby clothes to catch people’s attention near campus.
The 24-year-old from West Lafayette, Ind., said the idea stemmed from a year’s worth of work dealing with nature. She said she was interested to see whether people would give more thought to the “wild animals” if they were personified by being dressed in human attire, such as a Polo from Baby Gap.
Although she has dressed, and given some manicures, to three raccoons and three possums, she said she is not trying to make a political statement: “I’m not trying to be any sort of militant activist for animals’ rights or anything like that.”
Read the whole article in the Belleville News Democrat
Thanks Shari!
May 10th, 2007 at 2:23 am
Oh yum…….dressed roadkill…….my favorite. :p
May 10th, 2007 at 4:03 am
I guess that explains the high-end baby clothes I’ve been finding in the midwest lately. It doesn’t help the freshness of the meat at all, but after 5 or 6 washings, I can sell them on e-bay. She must have well-off parents, cause it’s high quality stuff!
May 10th, 2007 at 8:54 am
That’s actually pretty cool. Just make sure you don’t pose them in any ’sexual’ positions. We wouldn’t want to offend the soccer moms and bank tellers in the area.
May 10th, 2007 at 9:04 am
I think it would be overkill to put Oakley’s on a raccoon, though.
By the way, she called the exhibit, “Overkill on Roadkill”
May 10th, 2007 at 9:30 am
Gee I just don’t think I am fond enough of roadkill to actually handle their squished intestines to put a shirt on them…not to mention the little critters like maggots that have a nasty way of accompanying death on the road.
May 10th, 2007 at 10:12 am
Hey! That gives me an idea! GAP can start a line of baby clothes with tire marks on them. Those would work well for the roadkill crowd.
May 10th, 2007 at 10:20 am
ROFL Ironman. I’d buy one of those shirts and then go find some folks with a toddler. “Hey, I got something really cool for you!” That’d rock!!
May 10th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
Not all the clothes are high end. She gets some from Goodwill, thrift shops. Not that it makes the whole thing any less wierd….
May 11th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
So–if they don’t have clothes on–are they neked? lol
May 11th, 2007 at 11:27 pm
ahhhhh GT, the question is, if they are not dressed in human clothing, do you still feel badly about hitting them on the road? i try not to hit them at all, the act of hunting them is so much more sporting. uh-oh, ill bet theres a few bad thoughts coming my way for that comment.
May 12th, 2007 at 10:27 am
Depends, Ford. I am not a hunter myself. I never did see the fun in getting up at dawn to wait quitely in the wilderness to kill something whos meat I could just as easily get in a stoer. But, If I was to hunt, I would want some level of skill to it. Going out with a high-powered laser scope to kill a deer just seems so unfair. Now, if you were going out there with a bow and arrow or a muskette that would level the playing field some.
May 12th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
I hunt—Although I would rather use a pistol to kill a deer
(which by the way I have never killed a deer, but I’ve had the opportunity and a license). I don’t like the type of people who sit for a while and don’t see anything but a button buck and shoot it. Licensed or not–that’s lame!