FRENCH CURVE BEETLES
Stephen Shooster’s “French Curved Beetles” (2025), displayed at the Shoosty Bugs exhi - bition in Daytona’s Museum of Arts and Sci - ences, is a 36” x 36” vector graphic on 18mm silk twill, showcasing two beetles adorned with hand-drawn French curves. The pattern is intri - cate, with swirling, symmetrical designs in teal and coral that evoke a sense of organic rhythm, seamlessly blending art and precision. Howev - er, the true brilliance lies in Shoosty’s use of vector art—a technology born as a lightweight digital tool for web imagery. Vector graphics, built on elegant mathematical points, lines, and curves, allow infinite scalability without quality loss, making this piece as crisp at 36 inches as it would be at 36 feet. Designed using an iPad and Apple Pencil, Shoosty demonstrates the power of modern tools, freeing him from the desktop to create with precision and fluidity, the French curves proving the steadiness of his technique while doubling as a reusable toolkit for future works.
This approach recalls the meticulous digital art of Beeple, whose vector-based works also leverage technology for scalability and impact, though Shoosty’s focus on natural forms adds a warmer, tactile dimension via silk. Mathemati - cian Benoit Mandelbrot once said, “Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones… nature exhibits not simply a higher degree but an al - together different level of complexity,” a reflec - tion that underscores the elegance of Shoosty’s vector curves, mirroring nature’s intricate beau - ty through technology.
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French Curve Beetles 36” x 36” 18 mm silk twill Front Shoosty 2023
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