Maddy Fusco: I was a big fan of I-Spy books, if it's not obvious.
And like,
Where's Waldo and things.
I love adding
that element to my art
where people can have
that personal connection.
My name is Maddy Fusco.
I am a freelance illustrator
based in Des Moines, Iowa.
I work at - here -
out of Mainframe Studios.
I do a lot of shows and markets.
I also do murals around Iowa
and,
lots of lots of different
things.
I work with a lot of line
work, love getting kind of lost
in detail of things.
I love
having little areas
that people can pick apart,
or stand back
and just take it all in at once.
I am very inspired
by nature and animals,
especially like sort of things
that are on the spooky side,
but also kind of like,
also beautiful in their own way.
Also finding some humor
in things, here and there.
I have a lot of fun with it.
It usually starts with
a little curiosity on my end.
Like, I just kind of, like,
look at something
and daydream, like,
what if that was happening?
And I just kind of like,
it starts to swirl around
in my head, and then eventually
I'll sketch it out and after
putting some ideas down,
I think about, like,
how big do I want this to be?
Like, what do I want it to say?
Yeah, it always starts with me
just kind of
daydreaming.
I find myself
drawing a lot of bikes.
I don't know why,
because they're really hard
to draw, but,
I think that they can hold
a lot of personality.
Each one is different,
and I think each one tells
a little story,
especially like when people put,
like, their own
accessories and stickers
and I think it's just a good
vehicle, no pun intended,
for that kind of, storytelling.
One word that stuck out to me
was journey.
And I really liked the idea
of taking all of these things
that you learn
because PBS
is so much about
learning and education and just
implementing those things.
And like,
leaving evidence
of those things,
and in this case, in kind of an
Easter egg way where I, like,
you can pick apart like,
oh, that's from, you know,
maybe they might recognize
that the bag is Miss Frizzle
dress or, just like little,
little things like that.
And so I thought that would be
very fun to tell a story
with one object.
I like adding a fun element
for people to first see,
see it as a whole
and then, like,
wait a minute
and get kind of closer.
I was a big fan of I-Spy books,
if it's not obvious.
And like,
Where is Waldo and things?
I love adding
that element to my art
where people can have
that personal connection.
I wanted to really encompass
everything PBS has to offer.
I tried to keep it
pretty wide ranging,
not just my favorite things,
but I did include those, and,
yeah, to really emphasize
just how how much you really put
out there,
especially,
I wanted to focus on local
areas as well.
Just like specific
shows like about Iowa.
It's something
I very much associate
with, childhood
and growing up in my family.
Something very important to me,
I think, having that
as accessible as possible
to everybody,
is really important.
