Victorian Violin Mantis

Artist: Shoosty® Year: 2022

Medium: Duplex Printed Ink / 18mm Silk Twill Size: 36” x 36”

Based on an actual creature called a Wandering Violin Mantis that kind of looks like the body of a violin.

Throughout history, music and visual art have played off one another, with each movement affecting the other.

Music and Visual art both involve the expression of emotions. Music often has a relatively fast set tempo or beat that the musician follows while composing or performing. This can create a sense of structure and predictability in the creative process. The genius of Miles Davis was breaking that pattern. For me, visual art has a different tempo. It’s slow and steady like a glacier using layers and layers of techniques, concepts, and mediums.

Alyson Charles - Spiritual teacher, ‘... in the case of praying mantises, they can represent everything from precision to prophecy, contemplation to deliberation, as well as vision, prayer, perception, and synchronicity.”¹ she goes on to say, “This is a creature that encourages us to slow down and connect with inner wisdom and even sharpen our clairvoyant abilities.”

I like to think I make art with the same delibrate moves as the Mantis.

- Shoosty

Artist: Shoosty® Year: 2023

Medium: Duplex Printed Ink on 18mm Silk Twill Size: 36” x 36”

A group of Shoosty® Cicadas bugs with stained glass bodies surrounding a Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848–1933) rosette window. Tiffany was a famous American artist, designer and factory owner known for his innovative use of glass and color.

You can see the rosette today at the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum, Winter Park, Florida. It came from Laurelton Hall (1902-57) as Tiffany’s personal residence and the most extensive project of the artist’s career. He filled it with some of his greatest works, mostly Art Nouveau. Tiffany died in 1933. The sprawling building was sold in 1946 and became abandoned. In 1957 a devastating fire gutted the property. Hugh and Jeannette McKean purchased the salvageable pieces and added them to their collection at the Morse Museum in Winter