She brings taxidermy to life for students

There is a smell in this room with six rabbit carcasses, but it’s not as overwhelming as you may think. As students here at Carmine Oddities on Orange Blossom Trail peel the fuzzy flesh away from the pink bodies, the air is full of a persistent but subtle dull aroma under what I’m assuming is the surprisingly clean scent of formaldehyde.

Instructor Divya Anantharaman tells me my nose is wrong. “A lot of people think they smell formaldehyde,” says the New Yorkbased artist. “The smell is mental.”

Anantharaman, 31, is leading a class on taxidermy. Folks have come — some as couples, some alone — to learn how to properly turn a deceased rabbit into the mythical bunny-deer hybrid, the jackalope. It involves foam.

Starting out as a shoe designer, Anantharaman began sewing dead things into lifelike poses eight years ago. Her sculptures have won several national awards and, in addition to running her own studio, COMMENTARY she is a taxidermist in residence at the Morbid Anatomy Museum in Brooklyn.

Anantharaman was drawn to taxidermy’s combination of art and science. She also likes to get her hands dirty. “Everything is so digital now. You don’t have any tactile experiences,” says the daughter of a biology teacher. Taxidermy, on the other hand, is “very visceral.”

Rick and Jessica find that out when, with Anantharaman’s help, they cut the lips off their bunny. This is the couple’s second class. “It’s interesting that you can take something that’s no longer alive and make it beautiful,” says Jessica.

“Taxidermists want to celebrate animals,” says Anantharaman, who has a strict ethical code in the animals she chooses to use. She works with many that have died of natural causes, animals that were discarded from sustainable farms or ones that she trapped and killed, which she also eats.

Scrubbing skin clean with borax, wrapping it over a foam form and sticking antlers on top of a rabbit’s face may not seem like everyone’s ideal afternoon. For the students here — first-timers and veterans — and their teacher, there is a sentiment that sums up why pretty much all of them are here: “I was always into odder things,” says Rick.

Anantharaman will be leading two classes, one on rats (Saturday) and another on jackalopes (Sunday) at Thirty Six Black Art Collective, 1809 S. Orange Ave., Orlando. Both are sold out, but check d-i-v-y-a.com for upcoming events.