Date of Birth: April 1, 1950
Place of Birth: Pomona, California
Current Location: Klamath Falls, Oregon
Stefan Savides is a true artist. This man was born with a total fascination of the natural world. Like many of us, we had early childhood interests in nature, however, in Stefan’s case, those interests were nurtured by his mother who taught him to embrace the teachings and beauty of nature. Stefan was totally influenced by this exceptional woman who saw his obsession with birds at an early age, and instead of exposing him to the Cub Scouts, she formed a junior Audubon club. She organized weekly meeting with eight-year-old Stefan and a handful of friends and taught them many things about birds.
When Stefan was twelve he managed to connect with a retired preacher who practiced taxidermy as a hobby who taught him a very basic beginning in bird taxidermy. From then he scoured the roadsides and beaches looking for dead birds to mount. By age sixteen, Stefan had built a reputation that had caught the attention of people in his hometown of Vacaville, California, and he was asked to teach a taxidermy class to adults through a city night-school program. It ran for a two-year period and numbered up to fifty students. By this time he had also built a thriving clientele base and was looking to expand.
When Stefan graduated from high school, he collected his tools and packed everything he owned into a Volkswagen and headed north to the Klamath Basin, at the border of California and Oregon and one of the largest waterfowl staging areas in the country, and he set up shop in a wild duck processing plant. From that day forward he was swamped with work!
He constantly wanted to learn more so he attended his first taxidermy show, the World Taxidermy Championships in 1985. He came away from that show with a Second in World Upland Gamebird, Second in World “Other” Bird, and Third in World Waterfowl. It was then that he set the personal goal to be asked to judge that show someday. That someday happened very soon and he judged the World Championships for two decades running.
During this period he created one of the most complete lines of anatomically correct bird forms for Research Mannikins. He started conducting avian workshops in his studio as well as across the country. He has judged just about every state taxidermy show in the United States, as well as competitions at the National Taxidermists Association, Canadian Taxidermy Association, International Guild of Taxidermists, Scandinavian Taxidermy Association, and New Zealand Taxidermy Association. Stefan was also a prolific writer and wrote many articles for Breakthrough magazine on everything from how-to to judging and artistic composition.
His taxidermy expertise caught the eye of collectors from across the country. This afforded him to travel around the globe caring for bird trophies in the field. This included a number of trips to Africa with Mr. and Mrs. Dick Cabela. He subsequently spent a ten-year period working on integrating hundreds of bird mounts into the 53,000-square-foot dream home of the Cabelas. This project also included numerous bronze fixtures that enhanced the project as well.
Many years ago Stefan had the vision that if he wanted to leave a lasting mark on the world of wildlife art it would be best to do it in bronze, and fifteen years ago he embarked on this second and new venture of his life. Taxidermy brought him to sculpting bronzes, and before leaving taxidermy as his main profession, he had a tremendous impact of thousands of today’s waterfowl taxidermists.
He is now represented by numerous prominent galleries across the country and his work has found its way into public and private collections belonging to the Cabelas; Johnny Morris, founder and owner of Bass Pro shops, and the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library.
It would be easy to say that not only has Stefan given his life to taxidermy, but also his generous gift of knowledge has inspired countless others to push forward and explore their own talents in an art form that was for so many years a secretive trade.
It is the rare and blessed few that are born into this world with a passion that was not to be interrupted by the complexity of the modern day we live in. He has embraced a total connection to the beauty and teachings of nature, which has guided his choices at each crossroad he’s encountered. The common thread, which binds his life, are birds and his work with birds from around the world embodies the fruit of that journey.
