Other inspirations Stephen looks, and ap - preciates are art historical movements, he mentions, Art Nouveau and the Bauhaus. These are both early 20th century, or turn of the 20th century movements. Both, phil - osophical and aesthetic, they’re marked by technology, and industry, but also the curves, the soft elegant curves of the Art Nouveau movement. There is another movement that came around the same time, Steampunk. Any Steampunk enthusiasts out here? It also has offshoots, like Cyberpunk and Bio- punk. These advancements of technology are both optimistic and cautionary tales. How do we integrate these things? Most Steampunk is set in the 19th century. I think you know Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Won - derland; The Time Machine by HG Wells; Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, all the way up to Japanese Anime. So, the way Stephen has borrowed and looked, and been in - spired by the weird and whimsical, is a way I think we could sum up Steampunk. The punk part of that means rebellious, uncon - ventional, and edgy, a rejection of the sta - tus quo, and I think we could apply this to Stephen’s work. Shoosty Punk. In my observation, Stephen never stops looking forward and finding connections. He is venturing down a path of new ideas at warp speed. The family is nodding. They know their dad. They know, working with Stephen, it was a little bit like trying to fly a colorful kite during a typhoon. It’s a wild ride. And by the way, Stephen has made kites. He hand-stitched and brought in kites for us to look at on silk they’re amazing, but the best person to talk about Shoosty, the artist, is Stephen Shooster. So, Stephen, please come up and explain yourself.
The Silk Story 36” x 36” 18 mm stretched silk twill , Shoosty, 2023
Goliathus CPU, 48” x 48” 18 mm stretched silk twill , Shoosty, 2023
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