LOCALadk Magazine
Issue link: https://localadkmagazine.uberflip.com/i/1417694
Whatever grizzled, blood-spattered deer hunters are expecting when they walk into Styx River Taxidermy with their kill, Maris- sa Jonke isn't it. is young, diminutive art major with a cascade of light brown hair and a sunny disposition, may make the hunter ask 1) Does she work there? 2) Is she some kind of assistant? and 3) Can they speak to the real taxidermist? When she was apprenticing, a guy came in and asked if she was the maid. It was not entirely clear whether or not he was jok- ing. She's been viewed as a parlor trick or a novelty. It's been as- sumed she was bad at the job because she's a woman and women don't do taxidermy. When the dazzling quality of her work shines through, men will hunt around for an explanation that will make sense: Well, why wouldn't a woman be good at stitching up hides, since women know how to sew? Now, in fairness, whatever people might expect of diminutive young art majors, Jonke isn't that, either. Learning of her voca- tion, they will tend to most oen ask, 1) Is she crazy? and 2) See question 1. "People will say, 'But I thought you loved animals,'" Jonke said. "I do, but whatever made it a live animal is long gone by the time it gets to me." When Jonke sat down with her parents to explain that she, who had been told since she was a child that she had an artistic gi, was going into taxidermy, "it was almost like coming out." Her parents understand now, if they didn't then. If any of the above is a particular agitation to Jonke, she doesn't show it, although she confesses it can be a bit irritating at times. More bemused than offended, she seems to enjoy slitting open stereotypes, stuffing them and hanging them on the wall along all the other trophies that populate the walls of her gallery. But there is another message here that has nothing to do with gender roles. Done with conscience and care, taxidermy demon- Perfection is hard. From bullet holes to broken bones to shredded ears from fights gone by, there's always the need for a workaround. "A lot of taxidermy is problem-solving." LOCALadk 15