Brent Shirley, owner of Brent’s Taxidermy in Camden, shows the soft lining inside an elk skin. He would go on to mount the skin along with antlers on a plastic foam form.
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lease don’t call them stuffed. “Everybody still calls it stuffing, but it’s not,” Brent Shirley said. “It’s putting skin on a form. It’s an art to making it really fit and really look real. You have to get the eyes right. If they look dead or sleepy, you don’t have it.” The owner of Brent’s Taxidermy has served Kershaw County and beyond for more than 30 years. The 63-year-old has mounted waterfowl, wild hogs, buffalo, bears, caribou, raccoons, deer, elk, foxes and fish. “I do a lot of deer,” Shirley said. “I love to do fish. I paint the color back on. I do it with an airbrush.” While many taxidermists can take nine months to a year to return a large mount such as a deer, Shirley usually prepares them in about four weeks. Smaller game, such as a squirrel or duck, may take more like two weeks, Shirley said. Tony McCaskill brings Shirley driftwood and old rice boards from the coast to mount the smaller catches on. “I’ve been hanging out with him my whole life,” he said. “He’s one of the best I’ve seen. He puts a lot of time and care into it.” In their youth, the two men fished together, and McCaskill now runs a catfishing business.
PAINTINGS
But Shirley does more than taxidermy. He also draws and paints on wood, canvas, feathers and walls. “We do a lot of portraits of family pets and that kind of thing, but painting feathers is Dad’s specialty,” said Colt Shirley. “I like to do it,” Brent said. “You have to go with the grain. It’s not like wood. It doesn’t all go one way. So you paint one way and then another.” The son’s business, Signs by Colt, is located in the same building as his father’s at 209 S. Broad St., Camden. Like his father, the 30-year-old does more than signs. Colt does custom wraps, metal sculptures, airbrushing and portraits. His sculptures often have a nature theme such as a tree
he made from scrap pieces and donated to a benefit for KershawHealth or a wildlife element such as a patriotic eagle now displayed at a private home off Lake Wateree. “I really enjoy taking a flat sheet of metal and making something three dimensional out of it,” said Colt, who graduated with a degree in graphic design from The Art Institute of Atlanta. Both men also paint murals. They worked together on the train mural for Elgin’s centennial celebration. Colt also completed a historic Camden mural on the side of a paint and body shop in the city and nature scenes on the walls of a local restaurant.
ALL IN THE FAMILY
“We get along pretty well,” Colt said. “It’s always good to have him to help me. We’re both artists, so we bounce ideas off each other on how to make things better.” When Brent was 11, he drew comics from Sunday newspapers. “It’s a God-given talent,” he said. Before long, he branched off to drawing his own cartoons and drawing little animals. An avid hunter, Brent began learning taxidermy when he was 13 or 14. When Brent finished high school, he painted a bulldog mural in honor of his alma mater’s canine mascot at Camden High School. That building has since been demolished. Similarly though, when Colt graduated from Camden High School, he painted a bulldog mural in that building. “I really couldn’t help but be interested in art,” Colt said. “It’s a God-given gift, and Mom and Dad have always been supportive.” Though not a father yet, the married Colt does hope to pass the business on one day. Brent said he hopes so, too. For more information, contact Brent Shirley at (803) 432-5311 or (803) 549-6281 or Colt Shirley at (803) 549-1234 or coltshirley@ bellsouth.net.
830 South Broad Street Camden, South Carolina 29020
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Brent holds up a pair of ear forms he will use for an elk mount. Instead of stuffing animals such as elk, the skin is now stretched over a model.
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Store Location 501 Dicey Ford Rd. Victoria Station Camden, SC
IN THE HEART OF CAMDEN’S ANTIQUES DISTRICT 803.432.0818 Daily 10-6 p.m. - Sundays 1-6 p.m. Closed Thanksgiving & Christmas 18th, 19th & Early 20th C. Furniture & Decorative Arts
DECEMBER 2013 - JANUARY 2014 | LAKESIDE 15