I guess my anger grew over time. At first, it was a matter of trying to accept that seeing them was just a part of my commute. Just a normal, bloody accessory to an already unbearable routine. I really don’t mean to be so pessimistic….I’ve just seen a lot of dead animals.

Time passed, but it wasn’t something I ever became accustomed to. Every time I’d pass an explosion of a bloodstain, dismembered animal pieces, guts dragged for miles - whatever - all of it broke my heart.

why wasn’t there anyone there to clean it up? I wanted to, even though I thought of the danger of being a woman on the side of the road, unarmed, just one dead animal trying to bury another. I’d need to be armed, and not alone…and, I’d somehow have to convince others that it was something worth doing. I’d need a strong case of why the dead animals are worth dignifying.

Then, the idea found me…..i thought it was bloody brilliant, and gorgeous. It made perfect sense, because rhinestones and beads were really starting to catch my eye at that time….and I had never seen anything like it before. I got to work immediately, inspired by my literal, every day drive to work.

From crushed birds, with their wings pulled and flapping in the wind, barely attached to the rest of their slop, to the shocking aftermath of an excited pet. Deer see the worst of it, I think. I had plenty to work with.

Much later, I was talking about the project and my vision for the idea to one of my mentors. She was shocked and in love with it, which surprised me at the time. At first it was hard to envision this impacting others in a way they would love. It’s a hard subject to examine and think about, I know. But she loved it…..and actually, she told me it reminded her of something she read about a while ago, about how there was a study done whose results show some people swerve on purpose to hit them.

Some people swerve on purpose to kill animals on the shoulders of the road, scared and waiting to cross.

I was able to find two studies that had evidence of this, and mind you, I’m pretty sure one was exclusively testing this for turtles in the road, but all the same, the fact that there’s even one instance of this on record is shocking. Imagine how much else happens with no one there to see.

My goal here was to make roadkill beautiful. I wanted it to be something that can be looked at, even revered. I wanted it to sparkle and shine, and feel very surreal and wrong against the backdrop of apparent serenity. What’s beautiful is dignified, no matter how dirty they are. And what we deem deserving of dignity, we can bring ourselves to think about - even harbor empathy for.

And that’s all I wanted, was for onlookers to see the dead things in the road, and care this time. Maybe, they’ll care enough to do something about it.

Sources Below.