About

Elaine Molinar grew up in El Paso, Texas, as the youngest of three girls. Her father, a pharmacist by profession, was an avid woodworker, photographer, and tinkerer. Elaine spent many hours helping, observing, and copying these varied pursuits. She has always been and still is a collector at heart, continually on the lookout for both the ordinary and the unusual, believing that inanimate objects are anything but. She has no formal training in taxidermy or art, but enjoys stretching the limits of fur, bone, and other organic materials, challenging our assumptions of nature and beauty. Every object has a story to tell and she tries to tell those stories.

In these works, I look for the beauty in the overlooked, the dispensable, and the once valued but now forgotten, bringing life to inanimate objects and transforming their personalities into what they always wanted to be but didn’t know it. 

Bones, bugs, hair, feathers, fur, shells, eggs, or other flora and fauna join forces with random ordinary objects. Liberated from the constraints of convention, their true identities emerge. 

Sources: Objects from anywhere and everywhere, feeder animals from the pet store or those who have otherwise already passed on.

Photography: the inferior ones are my own, while the beautiful ones are by the fabulous Lill-Ann Chepstow-Lusty

Awards:

2024: Wunderkammer, A Taxidermy Showcase & Competition, NYC: First Runner up, Best in Show Category for “The Death of My Rat”

2019: Wunderkammer, A Taxidermy Showcase & Competition, NYC: Best in Category for “For Meghan Markle’s Baby”

2019: 6th Annual Alternative Taxidermy Competition, Philadelphia, PA: 2nd Place for “For Meghan Markle’s Baby”

2018: 4th Annual Taxidermy Open, Baltimore, MD: Best in Category, Up & Coming Division with multiple entries.

2018: Wunderkammer, A Taxidermy Showcase & Competition, New York City: Overall 2nd Place with “Tea for Two”

contact: elaine@furriosities.com