Brian and Stephanie

In 2012 Brian and Stephanie Magby purchased a travel trailer to live in while building their home. It was under their mattress, in that Argosy travel trailer, that they would discover a completely intact mouse skeleton. Brian put him on a cork base, made a top hat for him out of an old button and cardboard, painted it black and found a porcupine quill for him to hold as a cane. Stephanie encouraged the addition of a little table with a cocktail set up and their first anthropomorphic articulation was born.

Self-described osteology and entomology artists, Brian and Stephanie Magby, were born just 200 miles apart in 1983; and both recall being engaged with art at an early age. Through their adolescent and early adult years they continued to dabble with what they considered to be a semi-profitable distraction. The early stages of their career realized creative endeavors ranging from carved lamps to jewelry. After several years of creative trial and error they discovered their niche in narrative anthropomorphic articulations. Once discovered, their new body of phantasmagorical story driven sculptures quickly found support.

Their enigmatic sculptures stem from a personal affinity with mysticism and the surreal; and their creative method is no less curious. When the duo first started their bones were sourced from friends, reputable dealers and lucky finds. As the demand for their pieces grew the artists took the next natural step; and started their own Dermestid beetle colonies.  In most cases the artists start with fresh animal finds, strip away the hide and internal organs, and put the beetles to work cleaning the bones. Once the bones are cleaned they are sterilized and whitened before being articulated.