2021 ARTIST STATEMENT In 2021 I was 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 Colorado. I met them there and she flew home. We took the van to North Dakota through Wyoming, Nebraska, and South Dakota. Our first stop was Laramie. where we sleep in front of 10-12 train tracks. It was glorius to hear thosegiant engines rolling down the track during all hours of the day and night. Then we went to Veedauwoo. I have bene there a few times. I love this location for its accesibility and scale. Its 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 wiht 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 arche- ological 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 wag- ons 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 a few of them I took to final posters. 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. What I told him I needed was to listen to the music. I needed to be with the band and hear it. He was playing at a local club and I got my chance. He told me that 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 them - selves 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.
I hope you enjoy these pages.
Stephen Shooster aka Shoosty
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