Interview with Roadkill part 3

question 3 for Elaine, the designer behind Roadkill. see questions 1here and 2here.
i feel like there’s a dark humour lurking behind even the sweetest of
your pieces. the other thing that tips me off is the name “Roadkill.”

what’s up with that? why does that dark playfulness interest you, and where
does it come from?

The name “roadkill” was actually a nickname given to me by a friend who got
a lot of joy out of the fact that I was scared of fast moving traffic…
Turns out I might have been roadkill in a past life. Yup, that’s me running
across the street to the safety of the other sidewalk even though the
light’s still green….

I’m not sure where the darkness comes from… I guess it’s always been there.
I was a extremely solemn and serious child and I loved wearing all black!
I’ve also always had a healthy obsession with leather, fur, taxidermy,
super-cute animals, weapons, and violence. (Even my mother collects dead
bugs!) But for some odd reason, I’m absolutely terrified of freshly dead
things… I suppose you could say I’m conflicted. When my pet fish died,
I wasn’t able to go anywhere near it, or even look at it. (Pretty hard to
avoid a fish tank when you live in a studio apartment!) After about a week
of living in fear, I ended up covering up the tank with a black garbage
bag, and throwing out the entire tank: filter, light, water, plants + dead
fish included.