Pigeon art

I guess the pigeon was a bit of an unwilling participant, however.

Yes, what you're looking at is a pigeon skull painted purple. The plastic canvas box is one I made ages (as in, probably twenty years) ago, but it happens to be a pretty perfect fit for the skull so it'll probably become a full-time skull box now.

I got the skull at a local trade show that my dad and I went to yesterday. The trade show was the usual mix of local businesses, bigger businesses with professional trade show people, unwanted political parties (yes, I'm talking to you, Wild Rose. I didn't think that it was possible for anything to make Albertans look even more redneck to the rest of the country, but you and that walking blunder Danielle Smith managed it. And honestly? When you asked me if I wanted a balloon or a brochure you're lucky I only said neither. I could have said sooo much more...), farmers' market, and local talent on the entertainment stage. Same thing I've seen (and collected a lot of pens at) many, many times in my hometown.

I'd never seen a skull booth, though.

Seems that one of the local tradesman has a side business cleaning and preparing skulls. He uses dermestids to clean the skulls -- one of the best ways to do it, I think, and much less labour-intensive than maceration -- and then seals them and, if you want, mounts them. His work is good. Good enough that I'm hoping that we might be able to have him do skull preps for us at work, rather than ordering skulls from the scientific supply companies (which is massively expensive).

Some of you right now are completely weirded out. That's too bad. And I'm not being sarcastic when I say that.

I like skulls. Not in the death's-head-clothing-and-skull-chains-around-the-neck way, no. I can't be bothered pretending to be emo or goth. I like skulls in a bit more of a professional way, I guess. I like what they can teach.

My two fans already know that I'm a bit of a comparative anatomy freak. It was one of my favourite subjects in school; even with all of that icky dissection stuff, yes. Knowing that you can look at an animal's structures and how they work and then learn about its life just by comparing it to other animals' structures and workings? Come on, that's pretty cool. And if you're truly disgusted by the thought of poking around an animal's muscles and innards, you at least have to admit that looking at skulls is a much cleaner option. Cranial size, length of nasal cavity, areas of muscle attachment, size and type of teeth... yeah, you can learn a lot from skulls.

I won't have to worry about the size and type of the teeth of the pigeon, you'll notice.

Painting skulls purple isn't normal in scientific prep, by the way. The vendor was just selling painted pigeon and rodent skulls as a novelty. It obviously worked on me, but it also gave me a chance to see his more serious work. And, as I said above, I guess that worked on me too because I fully intend to give him some business if I can.

Oh, and if you're wondering, I only collected one giveaway pen this year. It's kind of neat, though. Bet some of you wish I'd posted a photo of it instead. That's too bad... sarcastically, this time. And for those of you scratching your heads at the fact that I've managed to blather on so long about one purple pigeon skull (isn't there a song about that?), it could have been worse. As well as seeing the trade show yesterday, I also did my taxes.

Which would you have rather heard about: my taxes, or my pigeon skull?





Maybe don't answer that.

Aaanyway, off for lunch now. Busy week ahead so posting might be patchy, but it's been so patchy anyway lately that you probably won't even notice.