BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.2.3.1//EN TZID:America/Kentucky/Louisville X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/Kentucky/Louisville BEGIN:VEVENT UID:577@nkff.org DTSTART;TZID=America/Kentucky/Louisville:20230803T170000 DTEND;TZID=America/Kentucky/Louisville:20230803T210000 DTSTAMP:20230731T225327Z URL:https://nkff.org/events/monthly-club-meeting-2023-08-03/ SUMMARY:Monthly Club Meeting DESCRIPTION:Dave Might\nTaxidermy and Wildlife Sculptures &\; Models\nIn cluding fish species.\nI think I was born hardwired to love and be fascina ted by nature. I still have a “yard list” I made when I was about six or seven years old of critters I found in my backyard that my mother kept with my childhood things. This love was nourished by regular visits to mus eums and nature centers\, and camping\, hunting\, and fishing trips with m y Dad. I found myself wanting to preserve the beauty of the pheasants\, qu ail\, ducks\, squirrels\, and fish we would catch\, and began teaching mys elf taxidermy at about twelve years old with books borrowed from the libra ry. By high school I was mounting up ducks for my friends and my parents ’ friends and work colleagues.\nI enrolled my freshman year of college i n Wildlife Management at Purdue University\, in Indiana\, but the out-of-s tate tuition costs led me to major in Zoology at Miami University in Oxfor d\, Ohio my second year. I also took art courses there and began volunteer ing at the Hefner Zoology Museum. There\, I prepared study skins and mount s\, made natural history models and did illustrations for exhibits and\, o ccasionally\, a grad student’s scientific paper. It soon became a paying job. After graduation and an internship at a nature center in upper New Y ork state\, I continued work at the Hefner Museum as Assistant Curator. In 1987\, the opportunity arose to work as a sculptor at the Cincinnati Muse um of Natural History\, creating life-size models of Ice Age mammals for t heir upcoming Pleistocene Exhibit.\nThe work at the Museum – now Cincinn ati Museum Center – created all kinds of opportunities to learn new skil ls and improve my model making and taxidermy skills. On the side\, I have always kept up my taxidermy work for myself and others\, including creatin g fish replicas for the Kentucky Dept. of Fish &\; Wildlife’s Salato Nature Center in Frankfort\, and other park systems\, zoos\, and nature ce nters. After reconnecting with the Hefner Museum in 2009\, I began regular taxidermy work for them and taught an occasional small workshop in taxide rmy\, specimen prep\, and exhibit design and production. I am currently wo rking with the Hefner Museum in creating a “wall of cats” and have rec ently mounted a Snow Leopard\, Cougar\, Pallas Cat\, Clouded Leopard\, Fis hing Cat\, and Serval.\nMy enthusiasm for the art of taxidermy and creatin g natural history models hasn’t diminished a bit over the years and I pl an on continuing into retirement – someday. ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://i0.wp.com/nkff.org/wp-content/uploads/20 23/01/Untitled.jpg?fit=2080%2C985&ssl=1 CATEGORIES:Meetings LOCATION:New Day Ranch\, 14838 Rosenstiel Rd\, Verona\, KY\, 41092\, United States GEO:38.823183;-84.667264 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=14838 Rosenstiel Rd\, Veron a\, KY\, 41092\, United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=New Day Ranch:ge o:38.823183,-84.667264 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Kentucky/Louisville X-LIC-LOCATION:America/Kentucky/Louisville BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20230312T030000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR