Our Promise
We never
kill for art.
No life is ever taken for the sake of art. We lay a brush only upon a specimen that has lived out its full, natural life. This is the one line this house will never cross.
The Boundary
Any art that takes a living creature as its material carries a boundary that must never be crossed. We have drawn that line, clearly and without exception.
What We Uphold
These three, upheld without exception. Should even one be unmet, no brush is ever laid upon that specimen.
The First — Ethically Bred
Every Hercules beetle we use is bred by human hands. Not one is taken from the wild. No habitat is diminished, no ecosystem disturbed — the work is born without cost to the forest.
The Second — A Life Complete
Only a beetle that has quietly reached the end of its span becomes a work. No life is ever hastened for the sake of a brushstroke. We honour that a creature, its time complete, may endure in a new and lasting form.
The Third — With Reverence
We never forget that each specimen once held a life. Japan keeps a quiet tradition of gratitude — of joining one’s hands before the tools and creatures that serve us. In that spirit, we mourn each beetle and lay it to rest before the work begins.
Why the Hercules
A brief life, given a lasting form.
The adult Hercules lives only a few short months. It has long been preserved as a specimen. To paint upon one whose life is complete is not to deny that life, but to keep what would otherwise fade — to hold a fleeting form as beauty. This is no story imposed. We simply pay our respect to the architecture of life, and lay down the brush in quiet.
Our Standing
Should you ask, we will answer everything. Our ethics are not something to conceal, but something to show.
Inquiries — info@herculeslabo.com