Krysta Morningstarr*Cox

Welcome, viewers, to the art of Krysta Morningstarr*Cox. We live life with a dissociative identity disorder—three different people live inside of our body. Krysta is what is known as the "host", she usually "drives". The other two are Jinx and Candy. Our reality is an integral part of who we are and informs our art practice.

We are a comic book creator and watercolor artist. We also identify as an AI collaborator. This means that we get an idea of something that would look interesting, feed a corresponding prompt into a generative AI, then draw inspiration from the resulting imagery. The idea is not to slavishly reproduce that image, we add that spark of human creativity and talent to the art that AI lacks. We also draw inspiration from photo references and real life scenery.  Our art is an exploration of our own idea of beauty and our inner sexuality.

We generally use watercolor, colored pencils, and ink. However we also use unconventional materials to create effects on the finished image. For example, we have used bleach, burnt petroleum jelly soot, and floor wax. We primarily use wet-into-wet and wet glazing watercolor techniques, along with a tortillon stump to blend pencil shading in the underdrawing, or 'value map.'"

Our comic art is heavily influenced by the Japanese manga style.  We like the Manga style because it is very easy to convey emotions. The fantasy art of Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell, Jessica Galbraith, and Jasmine Beckett-Griffith have also influenced our own Magical Realism style.

Our painting "Racism is Wrong" is a good example blending our two styles—comic art and Magical Realism. It also includes the influence of artists we admire—the sexy figure drawing employed by Vallejo and Bell, the faery art of Galbraith, and the "big eye" art of Beckett-Griffith. This piece also uses nonconventional materials including Vaseline soot, enamel and latex wall paint. We believe that making art is for the artist, but the art itself is for the people.