Shakespeare Beetle

Artist: Shoosty® Year: 2023

Medium: Duplex Printed Ink /18mm Silk Twill

Size: 50” x 50”

A hand-drawn vector graphic styled in the 1500s England. A beetle wearing what looks like pantaloons with stripes, like a Shakespeare character, integrated with an Art Nouveau vine in the shape of a window. The bug symbolizes nature and culture, while the window symbolizes the connection between the inner and outer worlds.

Insects have been used as metaphors and symbols in literature and art for centuries. In Shakespeare’s plays, insects often appear as agents of mischief, corruption, or transformation.

In King Lear, Lear curses his daughters with “The fangs of adders, spiders, toads.”

In Othello, Lago plants the seed of jealousy in Othello’s mind by saying “O beware, my lord, of jealousy! / It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock / The meat it feeds on”.

Wear the Art / Be the Movement™