Well isn't that 'Sweet?': Artist Hollie Dilley to hold taxidermy-centered art show – TheUnion.com

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Hollie Dilley uses small paint brushes to dust off her taxidermy creations and their many accoutrements, including lighting, artificial candies, and plenty of teeth, both human and wildlife.
Hollie Dilley’s creations for “Sweet Tooth” include taxidermy and hand made baubles that help decorate each piece. Dilley said she has a rule that if someone she knows has a collision on the road, they will call her to pick it up and create her signature art.
This Tooth Fairy, which lights up, is one of the first pieces Hollie Dilley created for “Sweet Tooth,” her upcoming art show at the National Exchange Hotel June 5. All of the candy on the piece was created by Dilley herself.
This Hollie Dilley piece, featuring a large geode, has already been sold. The hummingbirds within the creation are real, and through trial and error Dilley realized she couldn’t taxidermy them, but she could mummify them. The birds were provided by someone whose cat had a penchant for catching the fluttering creatures.

Hollie Dilley uses small paint brushes to dust off her taxidermy creations and their many accoutrements, including lighting, artificial candies, and plenty of teeth, both human and wildlife.
Hollie Dilley’s creations for “Sweet Tooth” include taxidermy and hand made baubles that help decorate each piece. Dilley said she has a rule that if someone she knows has a collision on the road, they will call her to pick it up and create her signature art.
This Tooth Fairy, which lights up, is one of the first pieces Hollie Dilley created for “Sweet Tooth,” her upcoming art show at the National Exchange Hotel June 5. All of the candy on the piece was created by Dilley herself.
This Hollie Dilley piece, featuring a large geode, has already been sold. The hummingbirds within the creation are real, and through trial and error Dilley realized she couldn’t taxidermy them, but she could mummify them. The birds were provided by someone whose cat had a penchant for catching the fluttering creatures.
Hollie Dilley acknowledges that not everyone is into taxidermy—but she sure she is.
Dilley is the owner of Crush Nevada City, a roller skate shop that doubles as a fine art gallery, and on June 5, she will present for two days “Sweet Tooth,” a solo art collection of Dilley’s unique and whimsical taxidermy creations.
The one-night, two-day event will take place in the Empire Room of the National Exchange Hotel, which happens to be next door to five-year-old Crush.
“Sweet Tooth” will be the culmination of over two years of work by Dilley, who was inspired by pearly whites, a total of 14 pieces that have been created by Dilley who does all the taxidermy herself.
“It spawned from this woman, her name is Anne,” Dilley recalled. “She was a dental hygienist for like 45 years, and she retired, and she gave me a jar of human teeth, and I always wanted to use them. I just didn’t know what I was going to use them for.”
Around the same time, one of Dilley’s sons lost a tooth, and it inspired Dilley to think about what losing teeth and having the Tooth Fairy visit would look like in the animal kingdom.
“If animals were tooth fairies, what would they be, and what would they look like, and how would they get the teeth? The idea, the first Tooth Fairy that came was the raccoon, because you know, raccoons are like trash pandas. What a perfect Tooth Fairy,” said Dilley.
What fascinated Dilley, she said, was pondering what makes ones teeth decay? She realized that very early in life children are typically drawn to candy, and near the end of one’s life they frequently resort to another sweet in the form of Jell-O.
She started playing with resin and real gummy bears, she said, and it all evolved from there.
Eventually she would visit either Nevada City Chocolate Shoppe or Lazy Dog Chocolateria, buying pounds of candies such as licorice whips, salt water taffy, gummy bears, and Swedish fish. From there, she created molds for each candy and painstakingly recreated each morsel with clay.
And to boot: all of the pieces in the “Sweet Tooth” collection are lit.
Dilley has been practicing taxidermy for about 10 years, she said, beginning with lessons and then eventually becoming the teacher. She said she has developed a reputation around town for people who may have an unfortunate encounter with an animal on the road.
“People just know now my rule is, if you hit it, call me, but if you just find it on the road, I don’t want anything to do with it. I want to know it’s fresh, and it’s worth my time,” Dilley said, adding that she doesn’t generally work with deer or other animals that are considered “safe” within the taxidermy community.
She also has no interest in creating a typical mount, instead placing the animals in fantastical settings. And no, she won’t taxidermy your deceased pet, preferring projects that allow her 100 percent creative freedom.
OFF TO THE SHOW
Dilley is excited about her upcoming exhibit in the National Exchange, and is putting copious amounts of effort into making her dream come alive.
“Sweet Tooth” will be have its gala show in the hotel’s Empire Room at 6 p.m. for one night (and two days) only. Dilley is planning a full bar and treats to snack on while you enjoy the whimsical “dinner party” Dilley has devised amongst the animals.
“I want this collection to represent a dinner party, but from another dimension, of sorts,” she said. The collection also incorporates found objects, vintage dinnerware, silver trays, and experimental materials, all to create a show that Dilley said will be stunning amid the brick walls and je ne sais quoi of the Empire Room.
Following the opening, the collection will move to The Vault at Crush the next week, where it will remain on display and for sale. While the work will continue to be available for viewing, the June 5 opening offers the first and best opportunity to see the collection, meet Dilley in person, and celebrate the launch with drinks, music, and community.
THE ‘SWEET’ LIFE
As if she wasn’t already excited about the “Sweet Tooth” show, Dilley was also recently an awarded a Visual Arts Award by the Nevada City Chamber of Commerce at its 124th Annual Nevada City Awards Dinner, commonly known as the “Long Table” awards, an honor she didn’t know she was up for but thrilled to receive.
“I was really surprised to get that,” she said. “It was amazing.”
All this, fresh on the heels of the Nevada County Arts Council’s grant to Dilley to further pursue her artistic endeavors.
“I want to give (the Arts Council) a shout out and make sure that people know that they gave me a grant, and that I’m using that funding to put on (this) opening,” she said. “That was rad.”
Dilley said one of the pieces from “Sweet Tooth” has already been sold, but the rest will be up for grabs beginning at the June 5 show. She spends a lot of time and care with each creation, sparing no detail, and wants her reverence for animals to shine through.
“I don’t make my work to sell it, I make my work on it, and it’s like what fills me,” said Dilley. “When they leave, it’s like kind of happy-sad, because I did like take this animal flattened on the road and gave it a new purpose and a new life. I don’t know; there’s something special about that. And when a person connects with something, it’s special.”
To contact Staff Writer Jennifer Nobles please email jnobles@theunion.com.
KNOW & GO
WHAT: Artist Hollie Dilley’s “Sweet Tooth”
WHERE: The National Exchange Hotel | 211 Broad Street, Nevada City
WHEN: Friday, June 5 | 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

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