Mike Olandese: The Strange and Unusual World of Arcanexus Designs

In this episode of The Permanent Record Podcast, host Gerard Legagneur enters the strange and unusual world of artist Mike Olandese, the creative mind behind Arcanexus Designs.

Mike transforms animal skulls, bones, vintage taxidermy, and other unusual objects into distinctive works of art. He shares how his fascination with the macabre developed, where he finds inspiration, and what goes into creating pieces that blur the boundaries between art, natural history, and the unconventional.

The conversation also gets practical as Mike offers advice for collectors on preserving and maintaining skulls, bones, and vintage taxidermy. From cleaning and preventing insect damage to managing humidity and protecting delicate materials from cracking, he shares tips drawn from his experience working with these objects.

It's a fascinating look at an artist who finds beauty in the unexpected and gives forgotten objects a second life.

Explore more:

• Arcanexus Designs
• Permanent Record Magazine: https://clipkick.com/permanentrecordmag

A purple deer with a dollhouse tucked inside its torso. A glowing bay window emerging from its neck. A spiral staircase leading to a dining table perched on its antlers. In Brooke Weston’s work, discarded taxidermy becomes the setting for intricate miniature worlds that invite you to look closer.

In this episode of the Permanent Record Podcast, we sit down with the mixed media artist behind these surreal creations to explore what she calls “fantasy taxidermy.” Working with old, damaged mounts, Brooke combines restoration, sculpture, miniatures, and interior design to build detailed scenes inside animals. She takes us through the painstaking process, from hollowing out forms and repairing hides to constructing tiny rooms, and explains how the physical limitations of each piece often lead her somewhere entirely unexpected.

Brooke also traces her creative roots to a rural California childhood spent collecting bones and building little scenes inside trees. She reflects on discovering punk and goth culture, experimenting with dollhouses inside mannequins, and spending years in restaurant work while longing to return to art. In a candid discussion about sobriety, perfectionism, and her inner critic, she shares how reclaiming her creativity helped her build a life around the work she wanted to make.

Along the way, we talk oddities, the appeal of miniature spaces, and the criticism her artwork draws from people who misunderstand her materials and methods. It’s a conversation about giving forgotten objects another life, and finding the courage to take your own imagination seriously.

Artist and prosthetist Sophie de Oliveira Barata draws on her background in special effects to create striking works of wearable art that explore body modification, evolution, and transhumanism. In this episode, Gerard and guest co-host Lucia Brawley talk with Sophie about the technical craft behind making both hyper realistic and fantastical prosthetics, the influence of Alexander McQueen on her work, and the surprisingly complex challenge of designing a prosthetic butt.

Check out Sophie's work at https://thealternativelimbproject.com/

Kate Clark is a multimedia artist who uses taxidermy and sculpture to create a beautifully weird world — one full of hybrid creatures that don’t make us recoil, but instead, invite us to see ourselves reflected in the animal kingdom. Kate joins Gerard to discuss her creative process, pushing against taboo, and how one of her pieces ended up in a Kanye West video.

The Permanent Record Podcast premieres on July 1st — Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Sabrina Hansen is a private natural history collector whose collection includes rare antique taxidermy, extinct species, Victorian dioramas, and museum-level specimens.

In this episode of the Permanent Record Podcast, Gerard talks with Sabrina about her early life in Montreal, her training at the National Ballet School of Canada, her time studying and acting in New York, and the path that led her from Broadway to one of the most fascinating private natural history collections in the country.

They discuss the art and ethics of collecting, extinct birds, dodo bones, Walter Potter, conservation, privacy, and why Sabrina sees antique specimens as beautiful historical objects to study, preserve, and cherish.

To learn more about Sabrina Hansen, please see our feature article about Sabrina Hansen in Volume 2 of Permanent Record Magazine.

Tom Valvassori is a tattoo artist, lifelong maker, and taxidermy collector whose work is rooted in permanence, craft, and the stories people carry with them.

In this episode of the Permanent Record Podcast, Gerard talks with Tom about learning to tattoo the old-school way, why he still draws by hand, the connection between tattooing and taxidermy, the strange art of collecting, and the unforgettable moments when giving someone exactly what they asked for became something much deeper.

To learn more about Tom Valvassori, please see our feature article in Volume one of Permanent Record Magazine.

Doug Arbittier is an anesthesiologist, medical historian, and
collector whose more than 3,000 antique medical and surgical artifacts
reveal the strange, beautiful, and sometimes shocking history of
medicine. In this episode of the Permanent Record Podcast, Gerard
talks with Doug about bloodletting tools, Civil War surgery, President Lincoln's
assassination artifacts, the $5 doctor’s chair that started his
collection, his private medical history museum, appearances on Pawn
Stars and Jeopardy, and the art fraud case that led him to the FBI.