Dianne Bacon - Roscoe’s taxidermist

The children had finally grown up and moved out of the house.

In 2004, Roscoe’s Dianne Bacon decided to do something for herself. So she went back to school and became a taxidermist – and today she is one of the few female taxidermists in New York state.

“It was always something I wanted to do,” Dianne says. “Ever since I was a kid and went hunting with my dad.”

Dianne, now 50, is a 1982 graduate of Walton High School. After graduation she immediately went to work for her father as a stone-cutter. Three daughters quickly followed along with a bevy of odd jobs in factories, the state highway department and driving cancer patients to appointments.

“When my kids were finally grown up and out of the house, it was my turn,” she says. “So I enrolled in the Academy of Wildlife Art in Pennsylvania.”

Dianne, now in Roscoe, rented a place in Dunnsburg, Pa., near Altoona, and moved there for five months to learn the art.

“I was taught by some world champions,” she says. “There were only two women in the classes, but the other one dropped out.”

When she returned, she opened up a shop and never looked back. Now she prepares and mounts up to 150 deer heads a year along with bear, coyotes, bobcats, foxes, turkeys and skunks, too. She also does elk, buffalo, red stags and rams from an upstate game hunting farm.

“This is my busy season,” says Dianne, who keeps busy answering the phone. “From October to January, I am very busy.”

The process of turning a deer into a prized wall-mounted trophy takes her a little less than a month.

“First I discuss the pose with the hunter,” she says. “Then I take photos and measurements because the face is the most important part of the animal.”

Then she removes the skullcap with antlers intact, strips the coat away and discards the rest. The skin is tanned and chemicals added to treat the coat.

“It’s what keeps the skin from deteriorating and from smelling,” she says.

The skin and antlers are then transformed to a foam mold and glued in place. Two weeks of smoothing is required as the glue sets.

“That’s when I get to work painting the face,” Dianne says. “I work on the nose to give it texture and the eyes to give them a realistic look.”

So does Dianne hunt?

“Not anymore, I don’t have the time,” she says. “Too busy.”

And her least favorite animal?

“That’s easy - porcupines,” she says. “I can be real careful and I still get poked.”

John DeSanto is Senior Editor for Photography at the Times Herald-Record. Contact him at jdesanto@th-record.com