by Patricia L. Garcia
photograph by Lauren Furman
artist Lauren Furman breathes life into animal skulls
BEFORE STARTING on any new piece, Santa Fe artist Lauren Furman prepares by honoring her canvas: animal skulls.
“I respect the animal in a big way,” she says. “I almost have a spiritual moment with it when I first get started and ask the animal for permission.”
Using beads, gemstones, glass and tile, she crafts New Mexican desert landscape–inspired works onto animal skulls found by friends on hunting and hiking journeys and purchased from a skull cleaner in Texas. The skulls come in various sizes, from longhorn and bison to coyote and deer. Furman says she started this art form after her brother-in-law gifted her a bison skull.
“It was kind of sitting against the wall for a long time. I just kept looking at it, and I would wonder if I could mosaic the surface; it’s not flat,” she says. “So, I tried it once, loved it and just kept doing it.”
Her process involves a sketch that Furman describes as a “flowering of the mind.” The drawing usually involves a central idea that grows into an elaborate design. Furman cuts the tiles or glass into shape before grinding them down. She then adheres the materials to the surface. After a 24-hour wait, she applies grout of all colors onto the pieces to get a finished look.
Furman has always been interested in art, drawing in her youth and taking photography, stained glass and mosaics classes in college. In her 20s, the Connecticut native also made jewelry. For Furman, the artistic process is a way for her to decompress from her high-stress job as a nurse. But she’s hoping to pull back on her nursing duties to invest more time in her art.
“My husband and I both took the mosaics class together, and we loved it. I loved working with glass,” Furman says. “So ever since then, it became this little side thing I would do.”
Just as she honors each piece at the beginning of her creative process, the completed work of art brings life back to the animal whose skull she has adorned. “I like the intersectionality between life and death,” she says. “It’s like you’re bringing life back to this animal. Trying to bring life back to each skull has been really meaningful for me.”
To learn more about Furman’s work or to order custom pieces, visit thewildreclaimed.com.
