Shoosty Artist Statements Over the Years

The Artist’s Statements Through the Years SHOOSTY

DEDICATED TO MY WIFE DIANE AND OUR KIDS.

ARTIST STATEMENTS THROUGH THE YEARS

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Shoosty®

The Registered Trademark for the Art and Designs of Stephen Shooster

DOROTHY AND HERMAN SHOOSTER

MY PARENTS TAUGHT ME TO DREAM RESPONSI BLY. TO FOLLOW MY DREAMS, BUT REMEMBER YOU HAVE A BODY, A MIND, AND A SOUL. EACH OF THOSE NEEDS DIFFERENT THINGS.

Mom and Dad Age

Overview - The Best Part

October 11th, 2022

The artist’s statement is one of the most difficult things to write. Ask any artist that has attempted this exercise and their eyes may roll. To make an artist statement takes soul searching, patience, grammar, eloquence, some kind of spirit or inspira tion, honesty, and then when your brain hurts from sitting for an entire day trying to write your statement or most likely a month, many artists just throw their hands in the sky and just forget it. Some hire experts. The experts may help, but if you can’t internalize the statement then it’s not right.

However, there are some artists’ statements that are pure genius. Perhaps I need to find a few to add to this book. They find a cause, humble themselves, or come from such poor circumstances that their survival is the whole point. I do not por tend to be one of the aforementioned genii.

I was recently contacted by a group that wanted to help me with art sales. I lis tened to their pitch. Much of it sounded reasonable. However, at some point, they crossed the line by saying we should look up subjects on Instagram and then target that audience. If people want dog portraits, so be it. That is an abhorrent way to go about finding yourself. The primary purpose of art is the exploration of yourself and your surroundings. They are touting the opposite of what will complete your life mission. Art has never been primarily about sales. It is about your soul. Don’t even think about going into Fine Art if you’re thinking about money as the primary purpose.

Artist Statements change through time. Artists may write these once or twice in a lifetime. Most of them just keep updating their old statement, erasing the past. Since I have been working for years to document all of my art in a series of Catalog Raisonnés, I have statements for each period. You will see subtleties as you read between the years. They are necessary for growth.

I do not expect my art to survive. It’s too easy for thousands of pieces of paper sus ceptible to water, fire, and theft or most likely apathy become destroyed lost. They might go to a storage unit until they are forgotten and the bill is not paid. Even if they survive a storage unit is a waste. I hope it is my books, in digital format that will survive.

Stephen Shooster aka Shoosty

Nothing Happens in a Vacuum

I need to pay homage to the following: (I’m positive there are many more)

Diane Shooster 1969- Wife

Passion, Commitment, Vulnerability Jason Shooster 1990- Son Practice and Flow Anna Shooster 1991- Daughter Adventure Jaime Shooster 1991- Son Empathy, Mindfulness Carly Shooster 1995- Daughter Art History, Feminism, Sequential Art Cassidy Shooster 1999- Daughter Persistence, Empathy Albert J. Angel 1954- Producer The Details Matter Jean-Michel Basquiat 1960-1988 Artist Stay Loose George Booker-Tandy 1954- Musician Extraordinary Professionalism

Jim Boring 1944- Writer/Poet Critical Thinking, Writing, Poetry, The Banality Georges Braque 1882-1963 Artist Broken Space, Cubism

Michelangelo Buonarroti 1475-1564 Artist/Sculptor Stone has a Spirit Marc Chagall 1887-1985 Artist Be Poetic Chuck Close 1940-2021 Arist Portrait Abstraction Leonardo daVinci 1452-1519 Artist Never stop, find your flow and be prolific Jake Edmondson 1995- Musician/Film Thoughful Discourse, Humor Catriel Efrony 1923-2011 Artist Drips are Paint, Let Go, Be Free Paul Gauguin 1848-1903 Artist Color on Exotic Locations

Kevin Gore 1970- Lyricist Freedom Fighting David Hockney 1937- Artist Simplify Albert Hoffman 1924-2018 Soldier/Writer Honor, The Joy of Writing Marcia Isaacson 1945- UF Professor The Discipline of Drawing Steve Jobs 1955-2011 Engineer/Artist Vision

David Kremgold 1944- UF Professor Scalable Design Wendy Leuchter 1961- Sister Effervescence and Common Sense Max Leuchter 1961- Brother-in-Law Determination, Constant Learning

Henri Matisse 1869-1954 Artist Patterns

Jennifer McInnes Coolidge 1965- Artist/Fundraiser Determination, Comraderie, Character Pearl Nipon 1927-2018 Aunt Quality, Style, Distinction, Exercise Albert Nipon 1927- Uncle Psychic Income, Chopping Wood Pablo Picasso 1881-1973 Artist Mythical Lines, Cubism, Freedom Ad Reinhardt 1913-1967 Artist Black Paint - all of the Colors of the Rainbow Henri Rousseau 1844-1910 Artist Patterns

Leon Schagrin 1926- Holocaust Survivor Courage, Vigilance, Freedom Nate Shiner 1944-1984 UF Professor Painting, Tai Chi

Herman Shooster 1924-2013 Father Body, Soul, Mind, Be a Whole Person

Dorothy Shooster 1925- Mother Optimism

Michael Shooster 1955- Brother

The Power of No and the Beauty of Honesty Alizabeth Shooster 1966- Sister-in-Law All Kinds of People Make the Difference

Frank Shooster 1954- Brother Civil Rights

Ivan Sutherland 1938- Engineer Inventor of Vector Art Candy Tandy 1961- Musician Extraodinary Professionalism

Richard Tandy 1991- Musician Rapid Thinking, Focus Cappy Thompson 1952- Artist Grisaille Glass Painting

Vincent Van Gogh 1853-1890 Artist Swirls and bright color, Impressionism

Hiram Williams 1917-2003 UF Professor Modern Painting, Laughter Lawrence Yuxwelupton 1957- Artist Honor our Ancestors, Political Art

Special thank you to nature, butterflies, fresh water and trees.

Woodless #4 Soft Pencils Watercolor Pencils

A High-Quality Electric Pencil Sharpener Kneaded Erasers

Fabriano Acquarello Watercolor Paper, Cold Pressed, 100% Cotton, Grana Fina, 140 lbs Uniball .05 mm and .07mm black ink pens

HP Wide Format printer - Z6100 series

HP Canvas

A Large Stable Easel

A Mobile Easel

# 2 Long-Handled Bristle Brushes

A Complete Set of Bristle Brushes Palette Knives Wax Paper Palette Gamblin Oil Colors

Gamblin Transparent Oil Colors

Gamblin Galkyd Medium Poppy Oil MacBook Pro

A Gamers Mouse Ruby on Rails, GitHub Apple iPad / iPencil Apple iPhone

LG-Tone Headset iPad Apps Adobe Cloud Ceramics DropBox OKI Printer C931

Books, Audiobooks, Newspapers, Magazines, The Web Fastbind - Perfect Binding Triumph 4850 Cutter Silk Dyes Silk Steamer Telephone Wire

Balance, Weight, Softness, Flow Derwent Inktense Pencils Good Drawings Require Sharp Pencils Hand Exercise, Precision Clean-Up

Stability, Tooth, Permanence Needlepoint Pens that Flow Precisely Scaling, both Size and Quantity Wide Format Ready Indoor Painting Plein Air Painting Favorite Brush Strong Brushes to Push Heavy Oils Mixing and applying Oils Easy Clean-up, Clean Colors Wide Color Gamut, Safe and Permanent Beautiful Colors Oil Medium with a Gloss Finish Simple Light Oil for Thinning Paint Always Ready to Create Fast and Accurate Pointing Web Development Stack Digital Mobility Advanced Mobility Convenient Audio Affinity Designer, ArtRage Photoshop, InDesign, PDF, and more The Earth Heals backups - Backups - BACKUPS High Volume Printing

Brain Food Custom Binding in my Studio Essential Book Clean-up Silk Painting Silk Setting Colorful Wire

SEATED MODEL AND SCULPTOR STUDYING SCULPTURED HEAD PICASSO, 1933

Statement

Artist Statement

Artist Statement

Museum - Gainesville,

Anniversary Exhibition Artist Statement

Thunderbird

Tears - Gainesville,

lake - Idaho

-

- Live Oak,

Springs -

Beach

-

-

Dreamer - North Dakota

of

Aspen

Shoosty Fine Artist

Short Biography (2019)

Stephen Shooster, also known as Shoosty® was born in 1958 in Chester, Pennsylvania. He received a Bachelor of Fine Art with a minor in Architecture, in 1982 at The University of Florida, and enjoyed a successful corporate career by day and a prolific painting career by night. He is also the author of, ‘The Horse Adjutant,’ a story about a survivor of the Nazi Holocaust, and is featured in Marquis’ Who’s Who in American Art.

From Local Beginnings to Global Response

Shooster’s corporate career took him from working with his family in an answering service business, using old-fashioned wooden switchboards to navigating the company successfully through the conver gence of computers and telephony, patenting software along the way. His company, Global Response, served some of the finest brands in the world, including Toyota, Lane Bryant, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and MoMA - The Modern Museum of Art.

Shoosty® by Night, Invoking the Spirits

Using the signature Shoosty® his painting career spans over 50 years and is recognizable by his trade mark use of color and shape. Influenced by travel, music, tribal cultures, family, and more, Shoosty’s work takes the viewer on a wild ride invoking the spirits of Picasso, Braque, Gauguin, Chagall, Matisse, Ad Reinhardt, illustrated manuscripts, NW Indians Arts, Japanese Art, and whatever happens to move him. He creates paintings which range from the sublime to groovy. Shoosty’s handmade works are rare, but if you type ‘Shoosty’ into google and click images the whole thing lights up.

Construction for Eternity

Combining his artistic ability with his zeal for technology and lifelong learning, Shoosty® is as com fortable with oil paints as he is with technology. His primary concern is using the arts to provide creative leadership to those that surround him. Perhaps the greatest legacy is that all of his kids are artists.

Completed Catalogs

1958-1989 Artist Statement

Stephen Shooster (born 1958, Chester, PA.) is the third of four children of Herman and Dorothy Shoost er. By the time he was born his mom had lots of practice with kids. She would give Stephen paper and crayons to keep him busy. He made art and she saved it. Years later when he was compiling his artwork he stumbled upon some of those pieces. When you turn these pages you will be watching a young man grow. It may seem like these pages change very quickly, but what your looking at took thirty years.

This period represents my childhood before mar riage. I explored many concepts and materials, they range from portraits and figures to abstract expressionism, and surrealism. In 1982 I graduated from the University of Florida, College of Art, with a Bachler of Arts and a minor in Architecture. My claim to fame was the only art student that took calculus and received an ‘A’.

My father at the age of 48, with 4 kids almost ready for college, lost his job in N.J. and the family moved to Florida, where he bought a small business, which would eventually envelop my career.

Due to a genetic problem, I had all of my teeth pulled in a single visit at the age of eighteen. Implants were installed. It took months to heal and years to refine. Those implants were nothing like today’s technology. I had this surgery repeated two more times. Each time was a major affair. The pain was so severe combined with the embarrassment of having no teeth during those critical years awoke my super consciousness. I vowed to do something significant with my life.

At the University of Florida, I explicitly chose to study Fine Art. During the second year, I did a thought exer cise by asking myself, “If I was successful what would I want to do with all of my time?” The answer came quickly. “Make Art!” When applying for the Universi ty program I was asked which Major I would like to

pursue, Fine Art or Graphic Design. I said, Fine Art, I want to work for myself. Back at home, my dad said, “No way. You can’t study art.” Taking my father’s advice I did a minor in Architecture. Upon graduation, I got accepted into a Master’s Degree Program at the University of Ohio in Architecture. Five days before leaving for this program, my father asked me to stay home and instead help to grow the family business. I did. That was in 1982.

In 1988, I went to California for advanced comput er training. This training changed the course of the business and lead to a software patent, eventually to the success of running a mid-cap company as the CoCEO with his brothers and sisters. Software is similar to making a painting to me.

One note to the reader. Shoosty® is the trademark of Stephen Shooster. All of my later works are signed Shoosty. This first book was before that concept was creat ed, but we will recognize Shoosty in the title of this book to ensure the reader’s continuity to my life’s work.

“If I was successful what would I want to do with all of my time?”

Make Paintings! - Shooster

1990-2002 Artist Statement

1989-1990 (age 31 to 44) Most of my life was ded icated to family and work. I found time to paint on weekends, after work and holidays. Needless to say, my time was limited. During these years, I got mar ried and we had four kids and a dog.

I was part of a family business and found myself on call 24 x 7. At any time I would have to rush down to the office and fix something critical to the operations of our company. When I wasn’t fixing things I was inventing new systems and methods to make our business work better. I was very fortunate as these years represent a time of extreme change for the world. Computers and telephones were converging, and I was right in the center.

As you will see, I made time for art: woodwork ing; ceramics; figure drawing; painting; poetry; and stained glass. I explored multiple genres and styles including abstraction; figures; Chuck Close; Paul Gaugin; Henri Matisse; video games; caricatures; Bar

Mitzvahs; primitives; hippy posters; insects; and ico nography. The range is broad, but when you turn the pages and realize it all comes from the same hands, it makes sense.

I am very fortunate I had structure around me to help keep all of these interests on track. My wife is a champ, aways dynamic she keeps me on my toes. The company grew nicely allowing me to hire a team. Things never seemed to be settled, there was always a big challenge, but somehow we learned, imple mented, and grew. Luckily, our kids were all healthy. It seemed they would be young forever, infants and then children and finally teenagers. Time moved slowly. Looking back now, their childhoods were the blink of an eye.

All of them turned out to become talented artists. I can’t help but think I had something to do with that. While making things, which is what I do all day, I feel a certain kind of joy, and I believe that everyone wants to feel that way. With a little space, our kids flourished three of them in music and one as a visual artist.

2003-2009 Artist Statement

2003 - 2009 (age 45 - 51), I was working with my family in a highly demanding business. My wife, Di ane, and I had four kids, 2 boys, and 2 girls, all artists. Our boys earned their Bar Mitzvahs, one of them in Israel. I concentrated on a few major works and most importantly set the stage for my later works. My degree in Fine Art left me unskilled in graphic arts. I corrected that by taking the time to learn Adobe Pho toshop and The Adobe Suite. If you asked my kids who my favorite child was, they would all answer, ‘Adobe’, with big smiles.

With a strong technical background, I started to have an affinity for using software with my art. That is when I stumbled upon photomosaics. A photomosaic application uses thousands of photos. The software organizes them according to composition, contrast, and color and then compares each to a main photo. The result is a single image created by thousands of photos.

This project required me to digitize all of my work. Since then, I have become fastidious in organizing all of my digital files. That exercise also led to the cre ation of something remarkable, The Catalog Raison né of my art. Every piece has been documented and cataloged in a set of books in date order. You can fol low the progression of my art from crayon drawings to the sophistication of today.

During this period a large portion of the time was dedicated to playful posters. They combine conceptu al images with figures, poetry, and song lyrics. I was surrounded by music. I did not enjoy playing music, but I liked to be connected to it. Drawing was my way.

I also found the back of my heels throbbing con stantly. This led to surgery on both of my Achilles heels. I did them one at a time. The rehab was exten sive. During rehab, I started a fascination with mak ing bugs. I like doing lots of small experiments with styles. The bugs make for convenient objects, almost other worldly.

Notable work:

Uba Tuba - By juxtaposing multiple Tubas I cre ated a colorful composition that moves from small shapes to icons as if the music is creating the energy.

Jason’s Bar Mitzvah - I made a sensitive drawing of Jason reading his Torah portion which the Cantor sings. The Cantor trained Jason to read his portion. The background looks like a piece of matzah. A nice touch.

Jaime’s Bar Mitzvah - After the Bar Mitzvah of our son in Isreal, I stayed for an extra week in a place called Sfadt, near the Sea of Galilee. I liked this place because there was an area of the town dedicated to painters. It has a strong spiritual place in history. I befriended one of the artists and he helped me to ex pand my way of painting by including dripping paint. His name was Catriel Efrony and has since passed away. He was a great artist.

Slow Mover - My father had a life-threatening aor tic aneurysm. The immediate family went to Hous ton Texas where an ingenious doctor cooled his body and repaired the weakness in his artery. It was scary. I painted and wrote a poem while he was in surgery.

Shark Valley - Based on a photo while on a bike trip to Shark Valley, a Florida State Park. It depicts a teenage alligator partially submerged in the water. The piece is now on permanent display at the Univer sity of Florida in the student center called the Rietz Union.

Dreams Come True - I earned multiple grants to open a call center in the Upper Peninsula of Michi gan. Because of this, I spent a lot of quality time up there. I use wood that has beaver teeth marks in it to give it spirit then wrapped it with fur, string, and beads. I was given access to a wood shop to make the base.

Insect Series - The beginning of an ongoing and evolving series based on bugs.

Hello Friends - This drawing became a major painting and is hanging at the University of North Florida in Tallahassee.

Shark Valley - Monroe County, Florida

Hello

Uba Tuba

Jaime’s Bar Mitzvah - Jerusalem, Israel 2005

Jason’s Bar Mitzvah - Tamarac, Florida 2003

Photomosaic - Steve and Diane 2004

Slow Mover - Houston, Texas 2009

2010-2015 Artist Statement

2010-2015 (ages 52-57) were extremely busy and productive years. By this time I had been working with my father for 40 years and we had lunch togeth er almost every day. In 2012, he won the Excaliber award for Bussinessman of the Year by the Sun Sen tinel, four days later he was diagnosed with Leukemia. seven months later he would be gone. I was torn up inside. Around the same time as Herman’s diagnoses our son was diagnosed with severe BiPolar and need ed extensive care. We sent him to a facility in Idaho. He stayed there for two years.

I had 4 kids, a wife, and a complex business to run. My life was a whirlwind. Yet, I was able to accomplish a lot, including 16 major works, hundreds of drawings, some watercolors, and a few hand painted silks. Plus, I wrote and published my first book called, The Horse Adjutant. It is the story of a survivor of the Nazi Holocaust.

I learned a tremendous amount during this period from Computer Science to Art History and especially about family. It was a non-stop adventure. Making art played a big part in my productivity. It gave me some thing joyful to work on which is rewarding in and of itself. The key to all of this was finding my flow. My goal is simple: To fill in my thinking from Swiss Cheese to Munster, to close the gaps in my learning. To achieve this I study and practice with persistence every day. My favorite way to learn is by watching videos while on a treadmill. I also thrive on any kind of audio, especially podcasts, my favorite is Philosophize This! by Steven West.

I find myself drawing every day. Especially if I go to a bar to listen to music. I don’t like to drink and I don’t like to just sit there. I like to be engaged with the mu sic while actively creating. It keeps me sharp. When I first started I drew a lot from my imagination, but as I advanced I almost exclusively draw from life. I draw what I see, but my training allows me to see things others miss. My mind has Art History filters and modern web technologies at my fingertips. I use cubism frequently when describing a moving figure. I allow and expect mistakes. In fact, I encourage them. Mistakes are opportunities for my imagination. The best examples of these are my live drawings of musicians.

Dual Violins - Krakow, Poland

Going back to the days of timed figure drawing class es when I draw musicians I use similar techniques. I start drawing when they start playing and I stop when they stop. Working as fast as I can, I let the rhythm drive my hand. It gives me a little extra joy to share the final drawings with the musicians and the people around me when they take a break.

To prepare for the painting I select a few of the draw ings completed earlier. I do not like to redraw them on the canvas. I prefer to print them using a wide-format printer. It’s not that I can’t draw them, it is just that do ing so is a tedious process that would take a lot of time and result in something less than the original drawing. Once the works are printed I stretch the canvas and frame it. Then, I take a few of them to a framer at the same time to save on the shipping. This is one of the keys to my productivity. I embrace modern systems. Because the unfinished paintings are already framed when I start painting I just extend what I’m doing onto the frame. In this way, the frame becomes bespoken and adds a dimension to the final piece.

I traveled a decent amount during these years. Here are some of the places I found myself: The Upper Peninsula of Michigan; Costa Rica; France; Greece; UK; Poland; Washington D.C.; Wisconsin; Colora do; Atlanta, Georgia; Chicago, Illinois; and in Florida: Gainesville; The Florida Keys; and The Suwanee Mu sic Park in Live Oak, Florida.

Dual Violins - Klezmer music at its finest inspired this drawing which be came a painting. Created in Krakow, Poland, while researching my book, The Horse Adjutant. It was done at the Bats Gallery in an old square that included one of the oldest temples in Europe built in the 1600s.

El Arenal - The volcano in Costa Rica - First paint ed frame. Notable by the inventive use of squared swirls, part homage to Kuna Mola Textile Design and Van Gogh.

The Party Favor - Based on a photo taken in 1931 by Ze’ev Aleksandrowicz, I made this to go along with the book I wrote, The Horse Adjutant, about a survivor of the Nazi holocaust. The painting depicts Jews on horseback in Nowy Sanz, Poland, in 1935. Notable are the electric telephone poles in the background. The world was changing rapidly and the war would upend everyone’s lives.

El Arenal - La Fortuna, Costa Rica

The Party Favor - Nowy Sanz Poland, 1935

THE DRAWING WAS COMPLETED DURING A CLASSICAL MUSIC CONCERT INSIDE THE CHURCH HELD AT SUNSET SO THE PEOPLE CAN EXPERIENCE THE STAINED GLASS AS THE COLORS CHANGE. A PAINTING OF THIS SCALE HAS MANY LAYERS. EACH TAKES TIME TO DRY. THE ARCH FOR INSTANCE TOOK 3 MONTHS TO COMPLETE.

Sainte Chapelle - Paris,

TAKEN FROM THE OLDEST PHOTO OF MY FAMILY. THIS LARGE PAINTING WAS DONE WITH A PALETTE KNIFE GIVING IT A TEXTURE. I USED PINK FOR THE EPAULETS TO SOFTEN THE WAR STANCE OF THESE PEOPLE. ON THE RIGHT IS MY GRANDUNCLE BENZY.

2016 Artist Statement

Volume I and II

2016 was a very busy year for making art. I created so much new work that it takes 2 volumes to share them with you.

The first volume includes:

• The University of Florida, College of Art Series

• A European tour with a focus on Jazz Festivals

• Various portraits

• First Robotics. A club I joined as a mentor.

• The second volume consists of:

• Music-themed work;

• Landscapes

• Various influences

2016 Highlights of Volume 1

UF College of Art Series - Using a unique col or palette I refreshed the UF College of Art building giving it an abstract feeling and modern charm. Plus many more.

Sax Flower Fireworks - I discovered a setup at a flower shop that used a Sax and some flowers. I took that as an inspiration and came up with this beautiful combination.

Portrait of Jim Boring - The portrait of my friend and colleague, Jim Boring, a poet and writer is anoth er highlight. I love the use of the titles of his work be ing used as design elements. Since writing is his mag ic I believe this portrait captures some of that. Jim is one of the very few people that recognize all of the efforts I take in making art and admires not just the work itself but the craftsmanship of the human hand.

The Robotics Collection - One of the most valu able things about making paintings if not the most valuable part is how the reflection upon the subject can give you insight that you didn’t have before. In the case of the robotics paintings, I discovered that not only were the kids making the robots but in teaching them the skills to make robots that robots themselves were making the kids. It is a very subtle difference and yet crucial to perception.

Diane’s Birthday - based on a drawing of my wife, Diane, facing a band. The live drawing resulted in capturing patterns where all the figures became inte grated into the overall pattern. In this way, the figures are not separate objects but act as one. When I chose this drawing to make a painting the colors were missing so I invented them to enhance the patterns.

Pete’s Garage is a great example of an advanced digital iPad project. I took a tall ladder to capture the source image to create a unique perspective, then sliced it over and over to build a set of shapes. I paid a lot of attention to the lighting building the compo sition slowly and deliberately. The result is a complex painting that is also a playful and creative composition.

Polar Bear / One Long Road - my son, Jaime, playing bass guitar has a strong sense of feeling. The music must have been loud and driving when I did the drawings, as the work has an edginess to it. I achieved a kind of rawness with the final pieces.

Pete’s Garage - Marquette, Michigan

Diane’s Birthday - Coral Springs, Florida

Jim Boring - Coral Springs, Florida

UF College of Art - Gainesville, Florida

2017 Artist Statement

On Sept. 10th, 2017, Hurricane Irma barreled through my region of South Florida. We were all hun kered down at the office where we have generators and hurricane protection. I needed to keep the com pany working, so not only was my family there, but all of our employees and their families, too. We had well over 300 people in two buildings. I was nervous with a lot of responsibility. Hurricanes are serious, but we turn them into parties. As the storm was on top of us we played some music and I made a drawing. I must have been watching TV or something cause the storm ended up in my drawing.

Most of the art I did in 2017 was related to music. Those pieces can easily speak for themselves. Notably, I invented a term to describe my live drawing style. I call it ‘Frenetic Drawing,’ the act of drawing rapidly while listening to loud music on a live stage. You will discover some great examples of this on the following pages.

I love painting. Anytime I can paint I am happy. I was at a convention in Las Vegas when I was offered to go painting for an afternoon in the desert. The of fer came from an old friend from elementary school who I was able to keep in touch with using Facebook. He had no clue that I was a painter. I hadn’t seen him in over 40 years. It was great to catch up. I met him at his house and he showed me some of the Americana paintings he completed and also some wood he was curing for frames. That wood inspired me. It had an unfinished live edge complete with bark. When I got to the location to start painting I made an oil painting to match that wood, called Bonnie Springs. I’m not sure how I got it home cause it was wet, but when it dried I framed it using live-edge wood.

I took a class in Encaustic Painting in Boulder, Col orado. Encaustic means painting with wax. It is not easy to paint with wax and even harder to get sharp lines and shapes. In preparation, I did some research and discovered a way to use my laser printer to make line drawings that could be transferred to the wax. I printed the drawings in reverse and then dropped the paper on the hot wet wax. The fibers of the paper merged with the wax. Once it solidified, I used water to rub the pulp off leaving just the part I printed. It

Encaustic of daughter Cassidy

was easy and worked out great.

I got involved with The Plein-Air Club of Palm Beach. Plein-Air means to paint outdoors. The PleinAir Magazine is produced near my home in Boca Raton. Florida is perfect for outside adventures as long as you drink lots of water and dress for the sun and heat. I stumbled upon something I call, ‘Highway Mountains’ and did a few modern landscapes. They are fascinating to me, visually showing speed. I did them using my Ipad Pro and Ipencil. Because of my methods of working this is not consdiered plein-air painting. I believe they just don’t know how to use the tools.

I did another plein-air painting with the club of a home in the historic area of Boca Raton called, Old Floresta. I wasn’t satisfied with the result so, I went home and turned that landscape into a psuedo circuit board. You are not allowed to do postwork on a pure plein-air painting. I equate this to Bob Dylan playing electric guitar at the Newport Jazz Festival it was both outrageous and genius. We should be encouraging people, especially young people, to be creative and use whatever tools they prefer as long as they put their heart and soul into the result. I guess the bigger chal lenge will come when a person takes a simple photo with their mobile phone and uses an app to make a 2-second adjustment and then calls it a plein-air painting.

Hurricane Irma Party - Margate, Florida

2018 Artist Statement

The biggest change in 2018 for my art was the inclusion of the iPad Pro and the iPencil, with an app called ArtRage. I also had marked advancements in my live drawings of musicians that often surprised me. And to round things out I com pleted a few oil paintings including a large master work called, ‘Frank and d’Beans.’

I had plenty of new experiences with lots of trav el, too. I visited Pai, Thailand; Kathmandu, Nepal, a place beyond time; Edinburgh, Scotland, where I love visiting the local snugs (small bars where locals play acoustic music); Boulder, Colorado; Marquette, Michigan; Gainesville, Florida; All this, and I was still working full-time!

Each of these places inspired the art you will find within these pages. Of note is my trip to Kathmandu, Nepal, and the neighboring world heritage site called Bhaktapur. We stayed inside the world heritage site among the temples juxtaposed with modern motorbikes and a few stores.

The flight to Nepal was uneventful, however once on the ground, I saw how disorganized this place is. [That airport is known as one of the most dangerous in the world. It is located in a mountain valley surrounded by tall peaks. It is very close to the highest point on earth, Mount Everest.

We were picked up by a fellow named Dil Bahadur Chhetri. He brought us large necklaces of orange flowers making us feel very special. Dil is short in stature but big in demeanor. He is the perfect mix of local, entrepreneurial, and international. Notable is that Dil climbed Mount Everest. None of us knew then that a worldwide pandemic was coming and he would not survive. He was far too young to pass away.

2018 Notable Artworks:

Frank and d’Beans, 6 feet by 6.5 feet, oil on can vas, with a matching frame is a masterwork of my style. It took one year to make. The colors and composition are breathtaking. I used what I call a flat brush technique. I tried to paint everything flat to give my self the freedom to make compositional changes with

impunity. By keeping things flat I can paint direct ly over an area with a new color giving me the most freedom of composition.

Dattatreya Temple - My favorite temple in Ne pal was located in the world heritage site, Bhaktapur. We stumbled upon the temple while walking around at night. We heard chanting and followed the music. We found few people with a hand-pumped harmoni um organ inside the temple. We seemingly stepped through a portal into another dimension. They wel comed us with smiles as they continued to chant. We did our best to follow along.

In Bhaktapur I was mesmerized the entire time, making many drawings. The Hindus have many Gods, which in and of itself is fascinating. Coming from the West we are constantly reminded there is only one God. I found it refreshing to see an alterna tive approach and as an artist, the concept brings up profound possibilities.

Dattatreya is a composite deity that personifies three Gods; Trimurti of Brahma; Vishnu; and Shiva. She is seen as a three-headed God. Nowhere at this location will you find a sculpture or image of Dattatreya. In stead, each of the three Gods is portrayed.

In the front of the temple are a few steelys with sym bols atop of them. Lord Vishnu’s 3-pointed trident, the monk Garuda saying Namaste towards the tem ple, a conch shell symbolizing the sacred OM sound, and a chakra, a spiritual portal symbol.

I learned this temple was built from a single tree in the year 1470 as a resting place for Shiva ascetics. In the 1800’s it was modified to recognize Dattatreya. The building is made of a central set of bricks housing a small sculpture of a God with a doorway for the God to see the world. A porch surrounds the bricks which are protected by wooden slats giving the overall appearance of the building a solid shape. Up close you realize that the slats have large gaps. The porch is not protected from the elements. From the inside of the porch there is scant protection from the elements. This is where the people were chanting. It was a cold night.

There is one more thing that adds to the mysticism of the temple, it is guarded by goats at night.

STEVE AND SON JASON

CHANTING INSIDE DATTATREYYA TEMPLE

DIL AND STEVE

2019 Artist Statement

2019 was the last year of my working ca reer. I was very stressed but making art as much as I could. I was also writing my fa ther’s biography every morning for about two hours. I was compelled like nothing else to get it done. If I could just do it again, I would have been so much more careful with the time we had together.

The artistic highlight of the year was the continued learning of the iPad pro using the Apple Pencil. I tried a bunch of apps but I settled on Affinity Designer, a vector-based app with some great features. My work took on new levels of profession alism. At first, the technology slows you down but once it’s mastered things speed up making the transition well worth it. Conceptual City is an example of an old painting redone as a vector.

For many years I have been making art that requires perfect shapes. I did my best to hand-paint them but I always felt like the result was less than what I was aiming for. When I discovered vector art that changed. I could now do everything with far more precision. I believe the vector version of my old paintings represents the current state of the art in visual art.

I did some significant traveling including a trip to Vancouver for a week to study NW Indian art at Emily Carr University. Emily was a painter that created iconic art based on the region.

Of note in 2019 are the six paintings I did of the Cade Museum, Railroad Depot Park, Gainesville, Florida. I admire the de sign of this building. It is a science-based museum located in a city park with lots of green areas, biking paths, a few places to eat, and plenty of dog walkers. Sitting on the lawn I couldn’t help but start drawing it.

Cade Museum - Gainesville, Florida

50th Anniversary Exhibition Artist Statement -2019

Creating harmony out of chaos is a driving factor in my work. Painting allows me to have the freedom to create things without the expense of building them, like a novelist constructing a cathedral or a science fiction writer establishing a colony on another planet. Making art allows me to stretch my imagination while perfect ing my craftsmanship. In doing so, the simple act of painting slows my thinking to let it rest. In this way chaos and calm work together to soothe my soul, bringing balance and primal energy to my life’s work.

I surround myself with the latest technologies and the people who have the skills to make them work. It is refreshing to learn every day as part of a team of engineers. Meanwhile, at night, I like to play with ba sic materials like pencils, inks, and oils. The choice of the medium I use depends on both my whim and the pace at which I wish to work. I stagger many projects at the same time according to completion times, ranging from hours and days to months and years. It takes long periods of time to complete big projects. Large paint ings need time to dry between coats, and patience to re solve composition and form. It helps to have small wins along the way to keep my mind sharp and cheerful.

I am continually experimenting with the latest soft ware, while I relish my time working with hand tools. Technology is trying to mimic old-school techniques. In approaching them, it is also inventing new tools. The results are disruptive, but I do not think they will ever fully replace the old masters’ methods. I enjoy the chal lenge and continue to work in multiple mediums. Here is a short list: oil, pencil, watercolor, encaustic, glass, clay, paper, wood, digital, and found materials.

As an artist, my mind is like a microphone, sensing materials, sounds, and feelings. Everything is possible. Everything has limits. I am a composer, and the canvas is my song.

Most of my work starts with intimate drawings and paintings. I have standardized on 14” x 20”, Fabriano Acquarello cold-pressed 100% cotton grana fina 140 lb. watercolor paper. It may sound quirky, but I always cut the last inch off the block of paper, so I end up using 14” x 19” sheets. That size feels right to me and fits perfectly into my travel art bag, which I carry everywhere.

I love drawing things I can study in person. Musicians are my favorite models. As a band starts playing, I feel the rhythm and begin drawing as if I am playing an instrument along with them. Usually, the drawing is just about finished when they complete the set. I also love to visit museums; they are perfect places to explore. On a good day, I will arrive when the museum opens and will be the last one to leave when it closes. My entire goal for the day is two drawings. Over a two-week vacation, drawing daily, I can have enough finished drawings completed to last a year of painting.

I look at my subjects very carefully, paying extra at tention to the lighting, especially the nuances that form through happenstance. I believe you cannot see what you are looking at until you try to draw it; it takes pa tience and focus, but if you take the time, you are re warded and the model unpeels itself to reveal its es sence.

After capturing an initial drawing, I intentionally practice letting go, seeing where my mind can take it. My inspiration might be anything: Mythology, Art His tory, previous drawings, patterns, perhaps a book or a story, anything that catches my attention. I try to keep an open mind.

For instance, I recently drew a lush landscape including trees with Spanish moss hanging over them in North Florida. The following day I went to a concert and brought the same drawing pad. By chance I decided to draw the musicians on top of that landscape, integrating the two. The result is a dreamscape I titled Gypsy Tears, the name of the band. Once I had the concept, I did it again with my iPad.

For me, art is fundamentally about exploration. Through my life’s work, I can conjure a realm of possibilities briningingthem to the forefront of my mind. This exercise loosens my thinking, like yoga for the body, so that when I approach a problem, I try to keep the solutions broad. It makes a big difference to approach challenges in your life with an open mind.

To use an analogy, when a little sand enters the mouth of an oyster, the oyster becomes irritated. To soothe the nuisance, the oyster applies the same mineral it uses to make its shell. In doing so, layer af ter layer of nacre, better known as Mother-of-Pearl, coats the irritant and forms a natural gem, an irides cent pearl. I believe this is the same thing that motivates me. I use my natural tendency to convert disor der into something pleasing.

If I had to describe my work in one word, I would use the verb ‘cu rative,’ meaning ‘to make better,’ as in, let us make the world better.

Stephen Shooster aka Shoosty®February 2019

Warrior with Thunderbird

2020 Artist Statement

2020 was the first full year of my retirement after over 40 years of working with my family. We didn’t get to cele brate for long, as we were struck by a worldwide pandemic in March and locked tightly down with a ton of fear. Those first few months of the pandemic left me scrambling to se cure all of my digital files and duplicate them on multiple drives. I felt like the 30 potential years ahead of me were now 90 days. I used every minute of the time to build my legacy and make sure my kids had something to dig into a glimpse of their past.

Once the pandemic was in full swing and we had some semblance of order in the form of vaccines we bought a small 21-foot RV van. Together, my wife and I enjoyed the intimacy of living closely together for a week or so on the way to Colorado. Once there, we helped our son move into a new home. I stayed in Colorado, while my wife went home to deal with a flood at our primary residence. I did not expect to stay 5 months. During that time I built a mu sic room with 20 original paintings that double as sound treatment; a 90-foot concrete retention wall; a few large oil paintings; and two ceramic pieces. It was a very pro ductive time. I love Colorado and the whole region. The van opened up many possibilities for my art.

Having a van is something I never experienced before. On that trip, I explored from Colorado to Utah and back through Wyoming. At a place called Bear Lake on the border of Utah and Idaho, I felt the exquisite peace of the cool mountain air, while I slept warmly under the covers. This was the first time in years I was able to let go and just feel the joy of living. I was finally feeling retired. It was there that I also analyzed the landscape, separated the colors and shapes, and found a new kind of painting I call Vector Painting. It worked! The perfect evolution of my style.

And the landscapes... What I ended up making was un expected and remarkable. You will soon see. I started a whole new style of highly saturated, simplified land stud ies using a combination of Inktense Watercolor Pencils, Guache, and the iPad Pro with the iPencil.

A major painting was completed during the year called Bear Creek. The drawing was completed on a cold night at 3am after a music festival at our campsite surrounded by a fire as everyone played music, drank and laughed.

The Music Room - Colorado

Bear lake - Idaho

2021 Artist Statement

In 2021 I was retired for almost two years. I was free to do things I wouldn’t normally do. My oldest son, Jason, and his fiancee Anna drove my van to California and then to Colorado. I met them there and Anna flew home. We took the van to North Dakota through Wyoming, Nebraska, and South Dakota, then east to New York City through the jazz capitol of Chicago.

Veedauwoo, Wyoming. I love this location for its accessibility to giant boulders. It has all of the ele ments I look for when drawing: color; scale; mythol ogy; and dynamic elements. I made a vector painting. With the help of a friend on Facebook from Japan we added his poem to the piece. It is called Imagine.

Scotts Bluff, Nebraska - we drove through what seemed to be 1,000 miles of grasslands. Not a single tree. Seeing the hills of Scotts Bluff was a welcome change.

Mammoth Musuem, Hot Springs, South Dakota - About 40 mammoth skeletons were discovered and put under a roof turning it into a working site that was out of the cold and rain making it a mu suem. It was exciting to be immersed in this those findings and to watch the archeologists at work. I got a great drawing of a guy using a tiny tool to extract the giant mammoths.

Rapid City, South Dakota - We discovered a bookstore with an extensive collection of indigenous American books. I learned about the story of the White Buffalo, creator of the world. I was so enam oured with the story that it set the stage for the rest of the trip.

Franklin Roosevelt National Park, Badlands, North Dakota. They are called the badlands because it would be impossible for covered wagons to navigate across this topography. We drove to the nearby Painted Rocks. An expansive area where hori zonal striations in the rocks change colors depending on the light. It inspired me to make a major piece of art I call, American Dreamer, based on a similar major work by Henri Rouseau.

Chicago Jazz Clubs - Live music three nights in a row. Fantastic! Three different styles of music. I made lots of live drawings. These drawing are re markable because I start when the band starts and stop when they stop. They are full of exciting motion, and shapes.

Brooklyn, New York - On the Fourth of July we met up with our family. About a week later we switched van people. My son, Jason, left and my daughter, Carly, stepped on. We went to the Blue Note a famous Jazz Club in SoHo.

Sand Beach, Arcadia National Park, Maine Sand Beach is a boulder strewn beach. I do not recall any sand. I made two watercolors while sitting there pondering the rough waves as they struck the granite.

Niagra Falls, New York - I studied the falls both from the top and the bottom while drawing. The mist captured my imagination. I stylized the mist like Jap anese art with no preconception of what I expected. After a few drawings the mist took shape and I started to see an epiphany, the head of a White Buffalo. I saw that the falls themselves are the White Buffalo and the tremendous amount of water, the lifegiving force that the Indians spoke about in their creation story. It was a pleasing idea that I will continue to refine.

Tavolino’s Restaurant, Coral Springs - We listened to Jorge Garcia play his new album, Dedicated to You. He was referring to Jesus. I made a few great drawings. While Jorge played I imagined Jesus opening Jorge’s head and giving him direct in spriation. Now its the cover of his newest album.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my bug draw ings. Like a dancer warms up before dancing I like to do small projects that push my skills forward. I cen tered my attention on bugs many years ago for these quick sketches. You will see the collection has grown and continue to grow. Each one tells its own little sto ry.

Shoosty Bugs

Within the oeuvre of Shoosty’s (artist Stephen Shooster) many-faceted work, Bugs represents a category of illustrations depicting fanciful insects. The fascination with both real and imaginary insects goes back at least as far as the sacred scarabs of ancient Egypt. Shooster’s contributions to the genre are at the highest level of creativity and originality. The anatomy of his creatures, while familiar, is more at home in Alice’s Wonderland than in Linnaeus’s taxonomy. If comedy is the most difficult to write then whim sy is the most difficult of comedy writing. Like the exquisite care with which Shoosty Bugs are represented the fact that the subject is light gives no lee way from the precision with which they must be represented.

The concept of creating a gallery of fantastic insects is in the tradition of art that insists on the participation of the viewer. Both the artist and the viewer know that the bug in question does not exist in the real world. Ex cept that it does exist in the mind of the artist and of the viewer where it stimulates that most potent human attribute — imagination.

In a fantasy the key is not merely to write descriptive copy but to capture the whimsical mood of the art and to sustain the illusion that the world they create is real. The poet Marianne Moore once said poets create imag inary gardens in which we find real frogs. That’s what we are doing here.

Fantasy is illusion. And illusion always has an aspect of reality to it that anchors the viewer/reader — something familiar to ease the way to the strange.

In a non-fiction book of insects we might find accompanying text that describes the context within which the insects appear in various circumstanc es and cultures. Shoosty Bugs borrows the style of such text (the familiar) to present a strange but somehow plausible scenario.

With Edward Lear on one shoulder and Lewis Carroll on the other we dove fearlessly into the deep.

Jim Boring

Shoosty Landscapes

Everyone loves vast vistas, ocean breezes, mountain passes, boulders, trees, big sky, and just being out with nature, especially if you are an artist with your materials ready to go.

In September 2019, I retired from working with my family after 43 years. A few months later the Covid pandemic struck and the world went into a spiral. Once things settled down, I was ready to get outside and enjoy nature, so I bought my first small van. It has two beds, a full kitchen, and a bathroom. I got on the road with my wife, Diane. We drove from Florida to Colorado. There is nothing like touring in a van. It’s slow and the seats are up high, so it’s perfect for touring. I also picked up a pair of eBikes which com pletes the journey in a way I never thought possible. Those bikes give you the freedom of the last mile. You can ride up mountains, or around a city after park ing far enough away from traffic that you are still only minutes away from downtown. Plus, the eBike has panniers that can be filled with all sorts of materials, including all my art supplies, a small chair, and can vas.

In anticipation of the tour, I went to the art store to decide what tools to bring and I centered my atten tion on Derwent Inktense Pencils. These are highly saturated watercolor pencils. It is those pencils that made all the difference in the works that follow. With them, I could experiment and have great control.

A few years prior, I also started using an Ipad Pro with an Apple pencil. Back then I started by using a pixel-based app, called Artrage and focused on it until I understood almost every feature. It’s a great app. My 2018-2019 work is filled with finished pieces from this app. But, after a while, it left me feeling like I wanted more. I kept downloading apps and finally stumbled upon Affinity Designer. This is a professional art-making tool par excellence. Its main focus is vectors. I still use traditional tools as you will see, but when I take them into the digital realm the results are magical.

Drawing on the iPad glass is not as satisfying as drawing on paper. The glass is slippery and the re sults seem tight. I prefer watercolor paper and pencils. Without realizing it I have combined the two to come up with a new way of painting I call, “Vector Painting.”

Finding inspiration was easy, the United States is chock filled with places to visit and the eBike got me up close. As I sat to draw, softly at first, and more boldly in time, the project unfolded. The results were hard to see. The watercolor pencil drawings are muted without water.

Back at the van, I would touch my brush to water and open up the drawings discovering the compo sition from a different perspective. The colors were always surprising because of the special pencils I was using. They were bold and bright.

As much as I like watercolors, I was going for something more polished. So, once the painting was done I felt it still wasn’t what I was looking for and I went back and covered the whole thing with guache. Guache is paint with an opaque matte finish. It al lowed me to tease out the shapes from the painting. Once I separated the shapes, I took a simple photo with my iPhone and Air-dropped it into the iPad. I love how this technology is connected. Using the Ap ple pencil I copied the shapes and then filled them with pure digital colors, teasing out the results you are about to see. They are breathtaking.

Once I found my style, I also took photos and brought them directly into the iPad. Since the iPad is so easy to relax with I would start to make hundreds of shapes based directly on the photo. You will recognize these pieces by their photographic qualities.

These pages include the highlights with some extras to help you understand the process.

THERE WILL BE COLORS. THE COLORS WILL DISAPPEAR. IN A DREAM THAT SLEEPS BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH.

- TOHRU ISHIZUKA

2021 Shoosty The Art of Music Artist Statement

Stephen Shooster, aka Shoosty™, is a Fine Artist with over 50 years of experience. His gesture drawings on the subject of mu sic are remarkable for their inventiveness. When asked how he comes up with his ideas, he says, “What makes these drawings special is the music itself. I may have been moving my hand but the music was driving the patterns. These drawings could never have been created in a quiet studio. It is the music that you see.”

I have seen him make these drawings. He finds a spot and waits. When the band starts playing, he starts drawing. When they stop, he stops. It’s a whirlwind of activity. The result can at first seem messy, and hard to sort out, but it has a sort of energy that is compelling to study. He cleans up his drawings back at the studio where he digitizes them using vectors to completely redraw the final work. Once completed, the musicians jump into focus with precision and clarity.

Within these pages are examples of Shoosty’s original drawings side-by-side with his digital work so you can see the transformation.

Shooster is a graduate of The University of Florida, College of Art. He spent many years drawing live models. During those ses sions, he mainly worked with newsprint and charcoal. The idea behind the simple inexpensive materials is to stay loose and fluid while feeling out the composition. During these sessions, he was taught to use ovals to find the shapes and then tune those into the pose. All of the poses were timed, 2, 5, 10, and 30 minutes, respectively. Shoosty was trained to work fast.

While making the Art of Music, Shoosty deviates from his for mal training by using squares instead of ovals. I asked him why he is using squares and he simply stated they are faster. The re sult is a hard edge that sometimes becomes a cube which then builds like virtual wooden sculptures.

Shoosty also loves cubism, and since the musicians have a lot of energy and keep moving around, he frequently gives them two noses, three hands, and legs like in Duchamp’s painting, Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2).

Open the pages and immerse yourself in another world, The Art of Music, by Shoosty.

Albert Angel, Amateur Art Historian

Eddie and the Band - Gainesville, Florida - 2022

Statement

We moved into a new home and got a puppy. Her name is Penny. She is a German Shorthaired Pointer. She is way too much dog for us, but can also be sweet as pie. Penny needs a lot of attention and support all the time.

My wife and I we went to the most impressive wedding of our lives in Aspen, Colorado. It was on top of a Aspen moutain. The chairs were sitting in snow. I brought my drawing pad to the ceromony and did a drawing I’m very happy with.

We went to a second wedding at West Point Military Academy. You can not enter the famed academey without a pass. This was our chance. At the same time our son and his wife soon to be, Anna were using our RV and happened to be in the same area. We traded places. Diane took them back home while I took the van to Vermont. I planned to take it for a few weeks, taking my time on the way home. This did not work out as 2 days into the trip we found out my mom was in the hospital with blood clots in both lungs. I rushed home. I am writing this a few months later and mom is doing fine.

It was the year of weddings. In August we went to Copenhagen for the wedding of our oldest son. It was a welcome respite from everything at home. The wedding was held in Livo. Livo is an ecological is land in the North of the Denmark in a region called the Juteland. To get to the island we took two ferrys. About 110 guests from all over the world met us there. We had just about the whole island for the wedding with 20 support people. I went off exploring with my sketchpad.

After the wedding Diane and I decided to take a cruise around the Mediteranian. We stepped on the Celebrity Beyond in Barcelona, Spain and and spent nine glorius days touring the coast. It took us to Mar seilles, Nice, Florence, Sicily, Naples, and Rome. Visiting Italy was a milestone in our relationship. We saw Chaghall’s museum, multiple history musuems, The Uffizi Museum in Florence, and the Vatican, which is perhaps the most incredible museum on the western world. I vow to study it much deeper. I also intend to do a set of religious works to match the glory I experi cence in my own style.

I scheduled three art shows for that will keep me busy until the end of February. In preparation I also reformated and annnoted 11 books representing the catalog of my art. You can see them here: www.linktr. ee/shoosty2

Jason and Anna

Jason and Anna

Diane and Stephen (Shoosty)

Hillsboro Drawbridge -

A VORACIOUS READER, THE LIGHT BEYOND BEE TLE IS WELL VERSED IN METAPHYSICS. IT HAS THE CAPACITY TO BOTH READ AND DIGEST THE WORDS AND THE PAPER IT WAS WRITTEN UPON. DON’T BE SURPRISED TO SEE THEM IN YOUR DREAMS OR WHENEVER YOU BREAK ON THROUGH TO THE OTH ER SIDE. A FAVORITE INSECT OF JIM MORRISON, IT HELPED INSPIRE MANY OF HIS LYRICS. “THAT’S ONE HELL OF A SMART BUG.” - JIM MORRISON

In

SHOOSTY ARTIST STATEMENTS THROUGH THE YEARS

THE FINE ART OF STEPHEN SHOOSTER, AKA SHOOSTY

SHOOSTER PUBLISHING COPYRIGHT SHOOSTER PUBLISHING, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

441 SOUTH STATE ROAD 7 MARGATE, FLORIDA 33068

SELF PORTRAIT STEPHEN SHOOSTER AKA SHOOSTY 1985

WHO AM I? WHO ARE YOU? WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE?