Hi, I’m John
Early on
Born of a childhood love of hunting and fishing, my interest in taxidermy began in my middle school years. My parents purchased a correspondence course for me in 1978 from the Northwestern School of Taxidermy. After years of trial and error, waxing and waning interest, I refined my skills and opened shop in 1984 to do taxidermy for customers while attending the University of Southern Mississippi. After graduation, I worked a brief stint as a teacher while doing taxidermy part time.
In the mid- to late 1980’s, I started competing regularly in taxidermy competitions. After winning numerous state, regional, and national taxidermy awards., I became Nationally Certified and received the title Master Taxidermist. I served on the Board of Directors of the Mississippi State Taxidermy Association and judged state and regional competitions.
In 1989, I took the step from teaching into full time taxidermy when I opened Walker’s Wildlife Art Studio at its current location, where I have been blessed with an abundance of work from my many great customers. The original building went through several additions and remodels throughout the years. On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina ripped off the roof and toppled several large pine trees onto the shop. At this point, I migrated my operations into the garage for six months while the remainder of the shop was demolished and the current facility was constructed.
Current
I’ve been doing taxidermy at the current location full-time for over 30 years and enjoy the artistic freedom to bring each mount to life in a unique way. No matter what your mount is, we treat each specimen that is entrusted to us as if it were our own. Being human, sometimes we make mistakes, but we try our best to give each customer the best experience and highest quality mount possible. My wife Melinda and I look forward to personally serving all of your taxidermy needs.
Here are some pictures from throughout my career.
