A US artist has found a niche making miniatures of dead beetles holding sex toys.
Shelby Walton, from Denver, Colorado, has created more than 1,000 artworks using beetles and other insects that they take apart and put back together in human like positions.
The miniatures started off ‘pretty tame’ they said, but have evolved to become more complex and ‘dirtier’ over time.
Many are centred around the idea of sexual freedom and taking what is often frowned upon and celebrating it.
‘I’ll have bugs embracing their sexuality in a dirty scene,’ Shelby said.
‘I made a bug that is sitting, using a vibrator, and smoking a vape,.’
‘I also made a gender-bending bug, which is wearing high heels but it’s got a big dick and is holding a used condom and handcuffs.
‘Or I’ll have words like whore and slut, which are used to describe people in derogatory ways, and flip it on its head by putting it with a beautiful butterfly.
‘That way it kind of takes the sting away from the word and adds a beautiful element to it.
‘I’m a queer artist, so a lot of my frames and phrases have to do with being gay and I think we’ve experienced a lot of hate in the community.’
Shelby, who is in their 20s, was raised by religious parents in a religious area in Colorado Springs but refused to follow their parents’ faith.
They said their dislike of organised religion and the ideas it spreads has also influenced their art, adding: ‘I wanted an element of control over my own life and sexuality, all of the things which the bible tells you are bad.
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‘The bible tells you that homosexuality is a sin, that wives are the property of their husbands, that sex before marriage is bad…
‘So I take all of these old-fashioned and religious ideas and I turn the opposite of that into art.’
When Shelby was 16 and suffering from depression, they attended a Christian wilderness therapy programme for ‘troubled teenagers’ in Georgia.
The one-year programme is designed to help teenagers escape bad influences and daily struggles in a wilderness environment.
‘Cut off from the world,’ it was here that Shelby developed a passion for pressing plants and collecting dead insects.
After completing the programme in 2015, which they described as the ‘worst f****** year’ of their life, Shelby began brainstorming ideas for what to do with their collection and the insect miniatures were born.
Beetles are some of their favourite bugs to work with due to their variety and sturdiness, although they also use butterflies, moths, mantises and scorpions.
They order the insects from ‘sustainable sanctuaries’ in Peru and Madagascar, and thrift for miniature objects locally.
Usually, they design the setting before breaking off the bugs’ legs and gluing them back together in the desired position.
‘That’s kind of my specialty at this point, being able to manipulate them and move their bodies in the ways that I need,’ they said.
Each sculpture takes Shelby between two and eight hours to create depending on how intricate they are.
They sell their miniatures, which sit under glass domes or in frames,at craft markets and online through social media.
Although they have a lot of fans – a picture of a urinating beetle recently got more than 20,000 likes on Instagram – Shelby acknowledged some people ‘don’t get it’.
‘I’ve had people walk up and be like, ‘Oh that’s what it is’ and then make a really sour face and walk away,’ they added.
‘I’ve also had people walk up with their kids before and say, “No honey, not this one”.’
But Shelby added: ‘I like having conversations with people [like this] and being able to share my side of things, so that maybe they think differently about it.’
To find out more about Shelby’s artwork follow @curi_oddities on Instagram.
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