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| The World Taxidermy & Fish Carving CHAMPIONSHIPS St. Charles, Missouri May 3-7, 2011 |
He carves decorative fish decoys.
What caught his eye most, was an article about the Friday Carving Seminars of Bob Berry, who created many of the trout fish designs for Big Sky Carvers (Manhattan Montana) where Jay once worked as a finish duck decoy carver. These days Jay carves and paints folk art and contemporary fish decoys.
But when Jay was a teenager- during high school, he sent for a correspondence taxidermy course - his first project, a pigeon.
He says, "The pigeon didn’t turn out - it had thin skin."
The taxidermy course ran its course, and instead, he raised a flock of white king pigeons that flew around in the haymow of the barn where he shot baskets aiming for a basket ball hoop to the rhythm of a 45 rpm playing Sweet Georgia Brown.

