If you’re driving any of the more trafficked roads in Illinois, you might come across some of Jessica May’s art. She’s been busy playing undertaker to the most recent waves of roadkill, choosing to leave them in their original locations of impact but adorning them “in pet and baby clothes” and leaving many of them with their nails done:

Although she has dressed, and given some manicures, to three raccoons and three possums, she said she is not trying to make a political statement: “I’m not trying to be any sort of militant activist for animals’ rights or anything like that.”

May, a 2006 graduate of Purdue University, delicately approaches her subjects: “I wear gloves. I don’t know that I could touch it with my bare hands, because by the time I find them, they’re pretty far gone,” she said.

Recently, she painted a deer with metallic gold paint. Several drivers stopped to inquire about her actions; some were not happy.

It’s not quite taxidermy, but it’s not quite sacrilege…right?