The Birth of Dead Bug Society

I have always been a lover of vulture culture. Since the days I was a young child, flipping over rocks to find bugs, I’ve always been interested in the oddities of life, the peculiarity of death, and the beauty of everything left behind even after death.

I am an avid collector of insects, with a variety of local specimens and purchased specimens amidst my multiple shadow boxes. I also have skulls, taxidermy, and of course create my own dark art in a variety of mediums. My love of these things flows out into my other hobbies, and I have taken on hobby beekeeping.

As anyone who has tried to contain multiple thousands of bees inside a wooden box can attest to, sometimes hives fail. Sometimes they die slowly, and sometimes they die suddenly and unexpectedly. Such happened one year. When I opened my hive to check on them in the winter, thousands of perfectly preserved bees were frozen in time in the hive.

Knowing what I know of my love of collecting bugs and creating from their remains, I made some things with them, but there were far too many I could ever hope to do anything with. So, I put them up for sale.

And wouldn’t you know it? They were a hit. I couldn’t keep them in stock fast enough. I was constantly running out of shipping supplies, and I’m pretty sure my mailman hated me.

Then, one day, on April 25th, 2023, I received a message in my shop. The message read:

Aimee, I’m sorry, but why would you do this? You should honor these dead bees, not sell them for profit. Maybe you have a different point of view, but this isn’t right. It’s sad.

I’ve had differing reactions to things when I show some of my assemblages and sculptures featuring real bees. Once, someone yelled at me for copper plating a dead bee, insinuating that I captured and killed the bee purposely. I follow enough taxidermists to know that they, too, are often subjected to this particular brand of ignorance and hatred. People send them hate mail, messages, comments, about how their work is bad, disrespectful, or dishonorable.

So, we vulture culture enthusiasts must unite.

I drew my first Dead Bug Society design the next day, and it was a hit.

I can’t wait to make more vulture culture aesthetic pieces for you to enjoy.