1 800 913-7906
Accurate illustrations of the official state animals of the US. These are animals that have been designated by the respective state governments of the United States. This gallery is a work in progress, but by the end of 2013 all states should be represented here. All illustrations are hand drawn and expertly rendered. High quality prints, decals and t-shirts of each of the images are available. For more information and pricing please call 1 (800) 913-7906 or send an email to the artist.
I began this project - to be honest I can't recall exactly how the idea came to me - to draw all official state animals (animals - both extant and extinct - that have been given official designation as insignias of that particular state) sometime in the spring of 2012. Having focused very much on the animals of North America I figured most, perhaps even more than half, I would already have drawn and had in my wildlife image library. But as I began to compile a list of the animals I realized that the state legislators were given to, shall we say, flights of fancy when it came to selecting some of these animals? Sure, there's lots of standard, common picks like the American Robin, the Black Bear, The Whitetailed Deer, Monarch Butterfly and so on. But there are also several less conventional animals that I will have to draw, including over a dozen extinct animals, an official state bat (Virginia) a state macro-invertebrate (Delaware) and even one animal that doesn't even exist - the somewhat mythological "Blue Hen Chicken" of Delaware. But, of course the upside of all this is that I'm learning more about each of the states, and will have a near bar trick when all is done, as I'll likely have committed all state animals to memory. As of 6.12.2012 I've completed 11 of the states, and most of these were comparatively easy to what lay ahead, with animals like the Catahoula Leopard Dog (Louisiana) and Missouri fox trotting horse I should be busy for many months to come. I hope to have the project completed by late 2012 or early 2013.
