Today we’d like to introduce you to Arianna Travaglini.
Hi Arianna, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Here’s my website artist bio:
Arianna Travaglini (she/her) has unapologetically prioritized animals over human beings since she first burst out of her mother’s womb. A steadfast passion for the conservation, care and rescue of all living creatures made her into a prominent and lifelong advocate.
Parallel to a successful nineteen-year career in the adult industry, Arianna has dedicated thousands of hours and dollars – and sacrificed more than a few relationships – tending to our most vulnerable. After five years as a veterinary technician, she refocused her energy on private fostering and medical rehabilitation of domestic mammals, farm animals and exotic reptiles.
Arianna began collecting animal remains in 2023 without any real sense of an end game. Whether it was a skinned deer head at the bottom of a taxidermist’s dumpster or a deceased dog abandoned on the highway by a soulless driver, she found herself increasingly devastated by a society that embraced throwaway culture – even discarding innocent living creatures. Arianna made silent promises to them all: that one day, she’d find a way to properly honor them. In 2025, We Are Not Worthy was born.
Arianna currently holds down a small urban homesteading farm in Baltimore, MD, surrounded by 30+ rescue animals. She’s a queer cis woman who lives with severe ADHD, watches too many horror movies, and definitely can’t wait to show you the latest fascinating insect she’s preserved for pinning.
Arianna wholeheartedly believes that no matter how hard we may try, we will forever be undeserving of animals’ pure love and undeniable majesty. In her hands they’re immortalized as royals.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has been *anything* but smooth! I’ve been financially independent my entire life adult life; my family wasn’t too keen on my identity or my interests. I’m a proud queer woman and sex worker, and my natural lack of shame has always stirred the patriarchal-rage pot. I’ve had my graduate program acceptance rescinded, lost several meaningful friendships (as well as a continuing relationship with my family), lived in poverty, been dragged through the court systems facing people who thought they were entitled to my body and affections, and much more. Despite it all I was determined to remain true to myself, and I also enjoyed a prolonged career as a sex educator, traveled all over the world, finally bought the little hobby homestead farm of my dreams, and made lots of NEW friends! These days I mostly struggle with executive functioning as a person with debilitating, degenerative ADD and RSD; I was diagnosed three years ago. I’ve also become a p/t caregiver for my out-of-state mother with Parkinson’s disease, so that’s taken certainly taken a social, emotional and financial toll. Making art certainly helps!
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Honestly, the nature of my work alone sets me apart from others! The “vulture culture” community is still quite niche, and I have yet to discover other artists that are producing work akin to mine.
I’ve always been a creative, yet I’d never truly excelled at any medium aside from writing (I was a sex journalist and advice columnist between 2014-2020). I’ve also forever been a rabid advocate for all living creatures, especially animals.
It took me a few years, but in early 2025 I finally decided to explore the several acres of woods behind my property and tripped over a completed 10-point buck skeleton less than 100 yards in. Over the course of several days I hauled literal bags of bones out of the forest, and in true neurodivergent fashion I decided to immediately teach myself everything there was to know about interpreting and processing them!
Processing bodies can be a deeply humbling, contemplative — and sometimes spiritual — experience, and I found myself wondering how I could truly honor these selfless creatures beyond cleaning and displaying their parts. Soon thereafter I decided to resurrect them as royals and deities, their routine sacrifice thrown in people’s faces demanding the reverence they deserve.
It surprises me how many people encounter my art and assume I simply purchase the skulls from a third party and decorate them. I procure animal remains from a wide variety of sources — bone hunts, taxidermists, estate sales, processing farms — but the vast majority of my finds are roadkill. I skin the animal, macerate them, clean and degrease the bones, then repair, bleach and decorate them. It’s truly a labor of love; one animal could take me almost a year to give new life to!
What matters most to you? Why?
The kind of person my animals think I am.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.WeAreNotWorthy.shop
- Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/WorthyWeAreNot
