2022 Artist Statement

from Shoosty Artist Statements Over the Years

2021 Shoosty The Art of Music Artist Statement

WARRIOR WITH THUNDERBIRD

2020 was the first full year of my retirement after over 40 years of working with my family. We didn’t get to celebrate for long, 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 secure 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, 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 music 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 productive 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 is the perfect culmination of my style.

And the landscapes... What I ended up making was unexpected and remarkable. You will soon see. I started a whole new style of highly saturated, simplified land studies 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. It was completed on a cold night after a music festival at our campsite.

ROCK SPRINGS 2020

EARTH BOUND 2020

BEAR LAKE 2020

JAIME IN THE MUSIC ROOM 2020

In 2021 I retired for almost two years. Most of that time was during the pandemic.

My oldest son, Jason, and his fiancee drove my van to California and then to Colorado. I met them there and she flew home. We took the van to North Dakota through Wyoming, Nebraska, and South Dakota, then east to New York City.

Our first stop was Laramie. where we sleep in front of 1012 train tracks. It was glorious to hear those giant engines rolling down the track during all hours of the day and night.

Then we went to Veedauwoo. I have been there a few times. I love this location for its accessibility and scale. It’s not too big and has all of the elements I look for when drawing, color, scale, mythology, and dynamic elements. I made a vector painting and with the help of a friend of mine on Facebook from Japan he added a poem to the piece, It is called Imagine.

Nebraska we saw Scott’s Bluff and what seemed to be 1,000 miles of grasslands. Not a single tree in sight. South Dakotah was more of the same except Scot’s Bluff. We also stumbled upon a Mammoth archeological dig. They turned it into a museum by putting a roof over it and were continuing to extract the Mammoths. It was exciting to watch so we made drawings. Just by luck, I got a great image of a guy using a tiny tool to extract the giants.

After we drove to the Franklin Roosevelt National Park where we saw the badlands. An area where it would be impossible for covered wagons to pass. Nearby we saw the Painted Rocks. An area where the rock formations of horizontal colors change depending n the light. I was inspired to make a major piece of art there I called, American Dreamer. It represents many years of practice and a touch of luck.

Somehow, we touched upon the idea of the white buffalo while studying the indigenous people. The White Buffalo relates to the Locota nation creation story. That’s what inspired this piece combined with a famous painting I have seen called The Dreamer, by Henri Rousseau.

When we got to Chicago we got to see live music three nights in a row. It was fantastic! Three different styles. I made lots of drawings. When I got back I was asked to do the album cover for Jorge Garcia. I loved the challenge and was happy to do something for Jorge. I told him I needed to listen to music live. I needed to see and hear them playing. He got booked at a local club and I got my chance. That is when he told me he is calling the album Dedicated to You, meaning Jesus. I used that as my drawing queue and made a modern Jesus opening Jorge’s mind and inspiring him to make music. Then I drew his band members in various states. The final piece is exciting and innovative.

Back on the trip we went all the way to New York City for the Fourth of July and met up with our family. It was a special time together at an AirBNB in Brooklynn. It was here that we switched again and Jason left as Carly stepped on. I took her to Arcadia National Park in Maine. We did a lot of biking and drawing. I recall sitting on a boulder at Sand Beach. It is strewn with boulders, a fitting border for the United States. It was there I made two thoughtful drawings using watercolor pencils. I’m very pleased with them. About a week later Carly was dropped in Rhode Island and I went back to Niagra Falls.

I like to imagine what things look like before I see them. What color do you think the falls are? most people would say blue. What color do you think the river is before dropping into the falls? Most people would again say blue. the river is brown or Black and the falls are white. I studied them and did some drawing. The amount of water pouring over those falls is profound. But. for the sake of my drawing it was the mist that captured my imagination. I have been studying Japanese art for a while and they like to style objects. I did the same with the mist. then I took an elevator to the bottom of the falls and did some more drawing. It was there that the mist took shape and I saw what I thought was an epiphany, I saw the head of a White Buffalo. I saw that the falls themselves are the white buffalo and the water the lifegiving force that the Indians spoke about in their creation story. It was a pleasing idea that I will continue to refine.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my bug drawings. Like a dancer warms up before dancing I like to do small projects that push my skills forward. I centered 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 story.

WINTER’S JAZZ CLUB 2021 AMERICAN DREAMER 2021

2021 Artist Statement - 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 whimsy 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 leeway 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. Except 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 imaginary 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 circumstances 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

2020-2021 Shoosty Landscape Artist Statement

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 completes the journey in a way I never thought possible. Those bikes give you the freedom of the last mile or two, effortlessly. You can ride up mountains, or around a city after parking 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 canvas.

In anticipation of the tour, I went to the art store to decide what tools to bring and I centered my attention 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 Ipencil. 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 results 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 chocked 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 composition 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 matt finish. It allowed 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 Ipencil 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.

IMAGINE

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 music 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 sideby-side with his digital work so you can see the transition.

Shooster is a trained Fine Artist and graduate of The University of Florida, College of Art. He spent many years drawing live models. During those sessions, 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 formal training by using squares instead of ovals. I asked him why he is using squares and he simply stated they are faster. The result 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 2022

2022 was a tough year. It started innocent enough and then quickly went sour.

Joe Biden was elected removing the threat of an authoritarian as president of the USA. And even though he is more level-headed his popularity sank with our fortunes and a war.

We moved into a new home. It was a big move for us. We took a chance to move before selling the old house. That was a mistake I hope to never repeat. That old house took far too long to clean up and prepare for selling. My dad says, Everything takes longer and costs more to build. He is absolutely right. The house was sold in September.

We got a new 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. For empty nesters with all the kids out of the house, this was a big step backward as Penny needs a lot of attention and support all the time.

We hired a decorator for the new home and worked in earnest to make it our forever home. By March we had to change our plans and turn off all projects with extra expenses. The market took a significant dive with inflation high and post-pandemic cleanup on the minds of the government. It was a huge slap in the face and a big wakeup call being that we had a bull market for the past 10 years with no end in sight. Well, that ended and it wasn’t pretty.

On top of these issues, I was trying to get a procedure done to fix my prostate. I was waking up 8 times a night and had to urgently go where I was frequently. In the process, I was required to take a biopsy and MRI which discovered a 1/2” tumor in my prostate. I was scared. Around this time of waiting for the results, we went to the most impressive wedding of our lives in Aspen, Colorado. I was trying to live life like it was the end and went a little overboard not helping our financial situation. I’m happy my wife and I had that time together. When we came home I found out the tumor was benign and I could move forward with the surgery to reduce the size of the prostate. The surgery is called Rezume and is the State-of-the-Art. It uses steam to destroy 1/3 of the prostate. the procedure was easy, but the recovery much harder. The inflammation from the procedure made it far worse. I was given a catheter for a week which was also very annoying. I took it very easy and got through the week but it took another 2 months to get relief and 3-4 months to feel amazing. During the time I was laid up, feeling anxious about the markets I decided to learn something that could make some money. So I got certified as a Florida Insurance Agent. It felt good to study, take a tough test, and best of all pass.

My wife and I went to a second wedding at West Point Military Academy. We were excited to go to this one as you can not enter the famed West Point Academent without a pass. Our son and daughter-in-law to be, we’re using our RV van and happened to be in the same area. We traded places and 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 find 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.

I made tremendous progress on my art in 2022. It seems that anxiety creates motivation to make things. Something silly happened along the way. I made a new book of art based on Insects and added a sponsorship page. I then called around and my insurance company agree to buy 200 books! When it came time to deliver the books I couldn’t do it due to pandemic closures but it inspired me to call my agent who promptly got me two shows. Then out of the blue Deerfield Beach Historical Society call for a 3rd show. So, the first quarter of 2023 will be busy.