Artist in Residence: Amelia Royce Leonards

The fantasy artist on why her studio looks like a taxidermy shop imploded…

The fantasy artist reveals why her studio looks like a taxidermy shop imploded…

When a new person comes to my studio, I beam, open the door, and then watch their increasingly flabbergasted gaze travel around the room. If they look hostile, I leap in front of them and wave my arms frantically while declaiming: “I didn’t murder anything – the bones were found in the woods, the pelts are old and were salvaged from antique stores, even that coral is from the 70s… please put it down, THANKS!”

Usually they’re stunned into acceptance, probably more from my flashing arms and lack of grammar than anything approaching a wellreasoned argument.

I wish this view wasn’t of suburban Gloucester. That’s why my desk is at the other window. I’ve slowly developed an owl fixation over the years, and Penelope seems to embody my fascination with ferns and feathers. Marvin the dragon is a mystery. He was here when I arrived and he has a kind face, so here he remains. Sid has been with me for a long time – he might have even been my first skull. A classmate in college was experimenting with handmade pigments and had a spare skull, and so… Sid happened.