BUG BEGINNINGS
From Sketches to Museum Show- case: Shoosty Bugs, An Art Infestation In 2007, a quick sketch of a bug ignit- ed a creative spark. Recovering from injury, I was in a silly mood and made a simple watercolor of a beetle. I was encouraged to make more. Louis Pasteur, the discoverer of pen- icillin, said: Chance favors the pre- pared mind. I agree. By this time, I had been painting for almost 50 years. If it wasn’t for my training that tiny sketch would have been forgotten. In- stead, I made a few more and built a series. ey were loose sketches. What made them di erent was the use of patterns painted into their bodies. It is the combination of these realistic creatures styled with antique textile patterns that made them striking. As a child, I was a stamp collector. Collecting stamps naturally led to or- ganizing my art, eventually becoming e Catalog Raisonné of my work. It is a collection of every piece I have ever made. Flipping through these books is like entering a time machine. It starts with the crayon drawings I made at age 7, in 1965, and current- ly spans 65 years to 2023. So far, it is
three volumes and 1,600 pages. I make a lot of art. I do not know of any other living artist who has taken the time to document all of it. It is a remarkable achievement, and has become an in- valuable resource that has proven in- strumental in attracting the attention of key gures in the art world. In 2022, acting as curator, Jennifer McInnes Coolidge propelled my work into the spotlight. Recognizing the unique potential of the bugs, she pro- posed a solo show. At the time, I was mastering vector drawing on the iPad Pro. Vectors allow me to create scal- able, high-quality images, perfect to ll up large spaces. e iPad gave me the freedom to do this anywhere. December of 2022, I ooded Mills Gallery in Orlando with a series of large-format prints of giant bugs. On the show’s nal day, Zach Zacharias, senior curator of e Museum of Arts and Sciences (MOAS), in Daytona, Florida, was captivated by my work. His enthusiasm led to a relationship with the museum and the opportuni- ty of a lifetime, Shoosty Bugs, An Art Infestation, April 5th, 2025 - Jan. 4th, 2026.
Shoosty 2007
Royal Goliathus Beetle Stamp 2023
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