Students in Fish, Forestry, & Wildlife class traditionally taxidermy a fish for one of their final projects. This is a project that many students look forward to during the semester, however the final step of painting the preserved fish can cause some anxiety.
Last summer, Mr. Wald (art teacher) and Ms. Jacobs (agriculture teacher) discussed the opportunity to collaborate. Mr. Wald teaches Illustration and Airbrush class and has given demonstrations about painting in the agriculture class in the past. This time, they thought they would get students in both classes involved for a cool collaboration and reduce anxiety.
The art students have most likely never painted a fish, and the agriculture students are not familiar with airbrush painting. The agriculture students supplied the art students with photos and a presentation of the fish species as a guide for when they painted the taxidermied fish. Much of the color of the fish is lost through the taxidermy process, so the colored photos helped students paint the fish in a color pattern close to what they looked like in nature.
The fish were put on stands and in a display case in the art department.
