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Maggie Fedorov

@maggiefedorov

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artist - storyteller - grief facilitator
owner @boonessolacetaxidermy
host of @totallyfingnormalpod

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Watch this space; big announcement coming Saturday! Are you brave enough to guess what I've been planning for you? 😘

🎥: @josephmakesvideos taken in Washington State, USA by @maggiefedorov

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a year ago

Software update v33 while we've still got a few months left <3 nice to meet you (again) 🤝 taken in Seattle, Washington by @maggiefedorov

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3 months ago

The bone cleaning update nobody asked for:

Beetle cleaning is NOT passive work. Or at least MY beetle cleaning is not passive work... But there's more than one way to skin a cat after all. To stick to the point, I was just thrilled to find so many opportunities for deep care laced throughout the beetle cleaning process for those desiring enough to find them.

I like to stay in step with my preservations, tracking their progress every day. There's a delicate balance between doing enough and overworking. Done slowly and done with intention, it becomes like breathing and so I step into the studio to sift through the treasured remains of companions preparing to go home and the motions are easy and flow like a river of love.

#biology #bonecleaning #petpreservation taken in Woodinville, Washington by @maggiefedorov

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10 months ago

1,650 miles (as the bird flies, of course) out, and 1,650 miles back...

After many months and a big transformation, Honey is home! 🤍

Pineapple Green-cheeked conure for Brooke P.

Thank you for your immense trust, my dear friend. I'm so happy you're reunited! taken in Woodinville, Washington by @maggiefedorov

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5 days ago

Barkley 🤍

A simple skull preservation for Davison C. by @maggiefedorov

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11 days ago

The minute Nat and Chris walked into the studio I could tell they'd brought something really special with them; that special thing was laced through their speech but outside of the words themselves and lingered palpably in the air of their presence.

After our intake ended, I unshrouded Hershey to bring him into my care and found the source of their magic: deep and tender devotional love.

I cannot explain the immense honor of being granted the opportunity to create my first articulation for Nat and Chris's memorialization of such a beautiful boy.

I love when clients become cherished friends. I'm fortunate to have so many. Thank you both, for being mine. <3

May I present:

Hershey 🤍

His guardians selected skull preservation; tail soft tan and articulated skeletal preservation of the tail; sculpted paw and preservation of the paw bones + radius and ulna; and soft tan partial pelt with hand-stitched felt backing.

Find Hershey's eulogy from his guardians in the comments <3 by @maggiefedorov

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13 days ago

Yeah so I actually lost my soul dog and my 8-year relationship 20 days apart this year and didn't have a mom to turn to so if I've seemed distant or different that's probably why.

If you know which came first you're one of the real ones and I owe you a debt of gratitude for holding my hand as I walked through that inferno. Love you.

Isolation who?! Never met her. Baby this was a metamorphosis, I've been in my cocoon 💅✨

ANYWAY I'm finally ready to talk about my life again, so here's some of what I've kept for myself in the last 6 months give or take :)

bts & bonus content in the stories for a limited time only! (did you hear me say this in my best Billy Mays voice? If not, I implore you read again, and really feel it this time. Billy would want you to, and I do too.) by @maggiefedorov

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21 days ago

More on mirrors?! Yeah, let's do one more on mirrors. 🪞🤭

Mirrors are a symbol I keep returning to in the art I create as well as in the art I consume.

Case in point, it's been a year since I finished this little Twin Peaks inspired diptych "White Lodge" / "Black Lodge" that I sent off to a friend in a care package late last September.

In February, the day before Rooster died, I sat down and wrote this about the work for Twin Peaks Day:

"I'm expanding right now. It's a beautiful, magical process that is also horribly painful and isolating. I wish I could sit with Coop over a slice of pie and a cup of coffee black as midnight on a moonless night to bemoan the challenges of standing in front of the mirror of the soul and reaching towards rather than turning away. As I look back at this little diptych I finished last fall I think the dust of the full meaning has finally settled for me.

Coop's light halo signaling who he is INSIDE, the innocence of Dougie on the exterior, and the two-way mirror which keeps him stuck. Seeing, but unseen.

From the Gospel of Mary Magdalene 8:11: "The soul replied: 'I did see you. You, however, did not see me, nor did you recognize me. I served you as a garment, yet you remained unaware of my presence.' "

And here, again, I feel the pull of 1 Cor 13:12-13 as a companion verse: "For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I am known. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love."

I see you, my soul. Finally, I see you. Rest easy, my heart."

I could go on about mirrors, reflections, and the great mystery forever but perhaps I'll leave some to the imagination ;)

But do swipe to the end for the photo that started it all! His advice kept me strong through Mom's last months 🤍 by @maggiefedorov

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25 days ago

Honored and delighted to be a selected artist for @tacomaphotoclub x @shutterandlightco "Self, Not Selfie" with my submission "As in a Mirror" this last Saturday at @manuscripttacoma

My subject is a 27 million year old baleen whale fossil housed at The Burke Museum. First of its kind, the species was previously unknown to science and this particular specimen was discovered here in Washington on the Olympic Peninsula in 1993: Sitsqwayk cornishorum. Per The Burke: "The name 'Sitsqwayk' is a Klallam word for a powerful spirit from far out in the water said to bring wealth."

As an additional layer to the primary subject, much like the reflections from the windows on the protective glass which draws the eye right to the fossil in the image, my personal narrative brings further depth and a multitude of layers of nuance when we talk about what the frame really alludes to. Let's dig in:
(Like what I did there? 🧐🌊🪏🐋💀)

By nature of my work I'm handling skeletal preservations all the time. I am intimately familiar with the internal structures of a variety of species, and I think a huge part of who I am as a human being lives in the recurring observation of the homologous structures of many seemingly unrelated living things. The wing of a bat, the fin of a whale, and the human hand all share the same basic design. The skeletal structure of a cat and a small dog can be difficult to differentiate to the untrained eye. Extend this to all of creation and it makes a remarkable statement about the ways we really ought to view and treat all living things and each other. Once upon a time I took a primatology class and I'll never forget the conversation sparked when the professor asked us to consider what differentiates homo sapiens from the great apes. Ultimately, it doesn't come down to language, culture, tool use, or anything we often like to think sets humans apart. Truly and genuinely it comes down to minute genetic differences in our DNA. We're none of us all that different in the grand scheme of things. And so when I look at these incredible specimens day in and day out,... (continued in comments - OR read on substack - link in stories) by @maggiefedorov

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a month ago

Hell is a teenage girl 🎀

Jennifer's Body's hyperbolic and critically misinterpreted black comedy is an excellent example of the mundane horror of girlhood. Diablo Cody's follow up to the surprise smash Juno fell victim to studio mismarketing; executives wanted to capitalize on Megan Fox's appeal to boys and advertised the flick as a sexy and genuinely scary fright-fest.

It is neither.

The script is a feminist meditation on girlhood, female friendships, compulsive heterosexuality, and rampant sexual harassment and abuse in middle America. Low Shoulder's attack on Jennifer is a clear metaphor for sexual assault; the community's adoration and celebration of the very people that victimized her caused damage back to that community. Jennifer's demonic revenge terrorizes the young men of Devil’s Kettle, but the film pushes male characters to the side, relegating them to helpless victim tropes often embodied by women in horror. Further, in a role often filled by an attractive female character, Needy's boyfriend Chip becomes the battleground between Jennifer and Needy in the film's third act.

In rewatching Jennifer's Body, I noticed all the real life references Cody added to the screenplay that made the horror feel so familiar. Devil's Kettle is a real waterfall in Minnesota, though not its own town. Scientists did drop dye and ping pong balls to figure out where the western flow of the falls emerges. The fire at the town's dive bar Melody Lane was inspired by the tragic Station nightclub fire in 2003, where a band's pyrotechnic display ignited flammable acoustic foam, reaching flashover conditions in 65 seconds. The Station nightclub fire killed 100 and injured 230 and remains the deadliest firework accident in American history. Even the Satanic sacrifice was based on a real murder that occurred in 1995; 15 year old Elyse Pahler was murdered by 3 teenage boys in California who thought killing her would make their band successful. The horror of the film is not so far-fetched.

Shout out to Adam Brody for playing the true villain of the story, Nikolai, in a way that makes my skin crawl. Skinny, twisted, and evil just like a petrified tree. by @maggiefedorov

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a month ago

Rusalka / Jennifer's Body 🪷

Inspiration comes in many forms and sometimes all at once. For Day 3 of #Jilloween, I'm sharing pictures inspired by the Slavic forklore figure of a Rusalka. My ancestry is Polish and I often feel called to the complex, morally grey characters in Slavic mythology. Rusalki are water spirits portrayed as beautiful women with long dark hair inhabiting forested waterways. Like sirens and succubi, rusalki are said to lure men to their watery graves through their beautiful appearance and song. However, a rusalka is not always a malevolent creature. Like the Baba Yaga, sometimes a rusalka chooses to help a young maiden who finds herself in an unlucky situation. Often, women who died near waterways or were drowned by their partners became rusalki in the afterlife.

Rusalka appear in many modern pieces of media. Czech composer Antonín Dvořák's 1901 opera Rusalka follows a plot very similar to The Little Mermaid, where a rusalka falls in love with a human prince and trades her voice for the chance to become human and join him on land. Canadian comic E.M. Carroll made a beautiful and haunting webcomic in 2011 titled The Prince and The Sea which has captivated my imagination for years now. And during a recent rewatch of Diablo Cody's 2009 Jennifer's Body, I made several more rusalka connections. Jennifer is explicitly identified as a succubus by Needy, but the lake and pool scenes gave such strong rusalka vibes to me.

For this shoot, Maggie is wearing my absolute favorite 1930s silk satin wedding dress and a 1960s nightgown.

(Day 3/13)

#Jilloween #Jilloween2026 #Rusalka by @maggiefedorov

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a month ago

Princess 👑
For Patrick P. by @maggiefedorov

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a month ago