Virginia Taxidermists Association’s Annual Convention

My name is Clint Rickey, I live in Dodgeville Wisconsin. I am a full time taxidermist and co-owner of Champions Choice Supply. I have been doing taxidermy full time since 2003 specializing in whitetails and game heads, and have been actively competing since 2009. Some of my major accomplishments on the competition side of taxidermy is my two Best in World titles, one with a whitetail and the other with an aoudad. I love competitive taxidermy but my true passion is helping others achieve their goals.  

Besides taxidermy some of my favorite things to do is, golf, mow my grass, sit by the pool on the weekends and drink beer, watch my daughters play sports, and kill animals.

My name is Cole Cruickshank and I have been asked to judge your show this year. It’s always a little weird writing these bios, because I don’t ever know what it is that you as competitors want to know about me. I’ve been a taxidermist in NW Missouri for over 25 years, and in that time have built a nice little business for myself. My wife and I are almost empty nesters, with 1 child a sophomore in college, and the other a software engineer for a large company. I’ve been competing for a long time, and judging for over 10 years. I remain an active competitor, as I feel that is important as a judge to remain connected from the competitor’s side of things. I’d describe my judging style as honest and fair. I’m not there to sugar coat things, or crush anyone’s dreams. I place a high importance on anatomical accuracy, and at the same time appreciate the artistic appeal of a piece. I’m pretty strict about laziness…things that are easy fixes, yet simply ignored. Things like dirty eyes, visible attachments, and unfinished parts of a mount are generally going to get hit pretty hard. As I said, I too love to compete. I’ve never been much of a specialist of any one thing, and instead I enjoy competing in several categories. I’ve been successful with game heads, turkeys, mammals and fish. Some of my accolades over the years include 17 State Championships, 4 Wasco Awards, NTA Challenge of the Art, NTA Distinguished Taxidermist, 4x National Champion, 2x Breakthrough winner, North American Runner up, and North American Champion. The accomplishment I’m most proud of in the industry is the media company I started, Taxidermy University. We took how-to taxidermy videos to a whole different level, with world class instructors teaching their competition methods. That success has spilled over into some beginner level 101-type DVDs as well, but the competition videos are the ones that really get me excited. Instructors willing to share their knowledge, holding nothing back, helping and teaching it all are who I’ve chosen to partner with, and it’s changed competition taxidermy for so many people. I love to see it. Thanks for having me this year, and I look forward to seeing what your state has to offer.

Hi my name is Greg Cuvelier  ,I live in Aplington Iowa. I started doing taxidermy in 1990 and started competing in 1991. I have been fortunate to have won some awards throughout the years , I am a National Champion, North American Champion ,3 time National Best all Around Taxidermist , an International and World award winner, and a 4 time Joe Meder Masters of Masters Award winner with gameheads and life-sized mammals.  I started judging in 2005 and have been actively judging ever since I'm really looking forward to coming back and judging the Virginia show again .Thank you!

Kevin Whidby of Gray Georgia.  Kevin is the recipient of multiple best of categories for birds, deer and reptiles, multiple Breakthrough Awards, Woody Awards, State and National Awards of Excellence, State Champion Awards,  Ducks Unlimited Awards, multiple first place birds in the World Taxidermy Championships, third highest scoring puddle duck at the World Taxidermy Championships in 2022 and Multiple Wasco Awards.

Rick is Lifetime VTA member and will be judging habitats again:  For many years Rick has encouraged our youth & amateurs to do the very best they can . His experience and knowledge should help and reward the efforts taxidermist put into their work.