Stephen Shooster (Shoosty®)
American multi-genre fine artist, writer, technologist, and luxury designer based in Gainesville / North Florida. Born 1958 in Chester, Pennsylvania — more than fifty years of continuous art practice.
A long, disciplined continuum
- 01
BFA in Fine Art with a minor in Architecture from the University of Florida (1976–1982).
- 02
Parallel corporate career: co-CEO and chief technologist of Global Response, the family call-center business that served major brands including MoMA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Hermès, and Toyota. He holds a patent related to computer telephony. The company was sold around 2019, after which he returned to full-time art.
- 03
Author of multiple books — The Horse Adjutant (a Holocaust survivor's story), family biographies, art catalogs, and volumes on his own work — and he maintains an extensive catalogue raisonné spanning decades across multiple published volumes.
- 04
Married to Diane; four children and a grandchild, all artists. In recent years he has pursued further studies in Art and Technology.
Chromatic Fusionism, art about art
Shoosty coined the term Chromatic Fusionism to describe his approach: the seamless blending of traditional art-historical references, cultural patterns, scientific observation, and contemporary technology. He rejects generic labels like “digital art” as outdated, and emphasizes technology as a lever that expands — rather than replaces — human expression.
“My favorite subject to paint is Art itself. If you make Art about Art you can gain the most Freedom of expression.”
“Art about Art = Freedom.”
Daily drawing as a path to self-discovery.
He does not use AI to generate visual art — though he finds AI useful for art criticism.
Influences include Ernst Haeckel, Hayao Miyazaki, Christopher Dresser, Chagall, Picasso, Mondrian, Van Gogh, and a wide range of textile and cultural pattern traditions.
Shoosty Bugs™
The series began in 2007 with a simple watercolor beetle sketch, made while recovering from foot surgery. It evolved into fantastical, highly patterned insects that feel more at home in Alice’s Wonderland than in scientific taxonomy — creatures that fuse realistic anatomy with intricate cultural and textile motifs.
Major exhibition: Shoosty Bugs: An Art Infestation at the Museum of Arts and Sciences (MOAS) in Daytona Beach, Florida — opened April 5, 2025, and extended into 2026. The show features roughly 50 works across two galleries, including large-scale (4 × 12 ft) shimmering silk panels of giant bugs and numerous giclée prints.
How the work is made
iPad Pro — vector painting
His primary digital tool; he describes himself as a “vector painter,” allowing infinite scaling without loss of quality.
Traditional drawing & painting
Drawing and painting on canvas alongside the digital practice.
Large-format printed silk
Vibrant color, sharp detail, double-sided scarves with color shifts — designed both as wall pieces and as wearable art (“Wear the Art / Be the Movement”).
Other outputs
Computer-knit tapestries, limited-edition prints, and soft-goods / fashion applications.
What the work is about
Whimsical, imaginative insects; music-related imagery; landscapes; conceptual “art about art”; cultural pattern fusion; and large-scale immersive installations. The work invites the viewer’s imagination and, in the silk pieces, physical participation — wearing the art while moving through a gallery.
Where to find the work
Saatchi Art profile and exhibitions across Florida — the Orlando Airport, Sanford City Hall, the Mills Gallery, and University of Florida spaces — with a recent expansion into luxury design and limited-edition products drawn from the art archive.