MUSSEY, Arsagas' at the Depot, 2018

"MUSSEY" as a series was inspired by a lot of different things which made it difficult to actually cultivate it and put my ideas down on paper, but most importantly I wanted this series to be centered around my childhood. So when I started planning and working on preliminary sketches I began looking at the history of where I lived and the symbols that accompanied that. I especially focused on the women whom I grew up around and looked up to as role models. As for material I first started working with colored pencil - although my intention was to use all different kinds of media to bring my art to life - but I quickly realized, and admired, the immature quality that the material possessed. Colored pencil is a very juvenile material, and I liked the way that represented the main theme of the series as a whole. When I neared the end of bringing this series together the final thing I needed to do was name the series. I went through many different names before I finally settled on "MUSSEY."As a child my parents called me "fussy mussy," as I cried very often, and when I began trying to find my own style of art I embraced the defining nickname. So it was only fitting that I named my first series after the pseudonym in which I sign my work.

 Autumn Blaylock, 2018