Based on the Central Coast of California, artist and writer Anna Fusco spends most of her time writing, reading, drawing, and surfing, with a daily meditation practice mixed in. Reflecting her various interests, Fusco’s quirky color pencil drawings play with elements of fantasy and narrative, while fusing together bits of her past and “whatever I can’t stop fantasizing about on the horizon.” These drawings were made in anticipation of a nomadic cross-country drive, her fourth in recent years, capturing what she describes as “the excitement of seeing the mountains and desert again, of finding somewhere else to live while confronting the unease of a fragmented lifestyle.”

“The drawings are an amalgamation of personal diary mixed with the conjurings of a shifting narrator—still frames in an imaginary American West set in the soft textures of my preferred medium, color pencil,” she explains. “I don’t like working with messy, globby, wet things. I get a lot of satisfaction from the rich pigments and flatness the pencils give. I love to write by hand—journaling informs my work—and the color pencils never feel far away from that possibility. The pencil serves a casual function of spontaneity most brilliantly. At any moment I can stop scribbling and start writing.”

See more from Anna Fusco below!