The Messy in Between
APRIL 20 – APRIL 23, 2026
Reception: April 20th from 5-7pm
Artist Statement:
The “Messy In Between” explores the spaces between drawing and painting, and between childhood and adult intentionality. The autonomy of early mark-making and the control developed through academic training, and color emotionality are also present in this discussion. These concepts exist in the tension between the messy, fluid qualities of wet-on-wet childhood watercolor and the refined techniques shaped by years of study and old master traditions. In this space, childhood, memory, and imagination overlap and lose their clear definitions.
Color functions as an emotional language in my work. The backgrounds of this series are derived from Waldorf watercolor paintings by my brother and me, painted between the ages of two and six. This is a formative time, especially within Waldorf pedagogical theories. Waldorf’s goal of these original paintings is to let kindergarten children feel the colors and see how they interact with each other, how colors arise, and how forms move, blend, and interact.
Childhood artworks speak to the lack of intention, training, and rigor, something we often strive to achieve again as adults, but find it difficult. Even our unintentional work is unintentionally unintentional. There are unique beauties in both the works of children and adults, and the work in this series aims to bridge the gap. The original watercolors are reimagined and translated onto canvas, then overlayed with rendered images of children. These layered processes allow instinct and control to exist simultaneously within the work.
The figures in these paintings and drawings depict ordinariness, displaying the interaction of the person with their surroundings or other people. As momentary bits of everyday life, the paintings are candid. While rooted in specific individuals, they remain open and not fully defined. This allows space for both identification and projection. Individuality and familiarity coexist. By reimagining these images in watercolor, the viewer is invited to reflect on their childhood or their connection to a child, seeing themselves or a loved one in these moments.
The “Messy In Between” defines visual tension as the relationship between unexplored wonder and developed structure. It captures a space of transition where things are contradictory – even recondite. The flashes of childhood depicted in these pieces reflect growth without a clear narrative. Physically, in the work, layers are revealed during different stages of progress, and the forms dissolve into something else. Regarding one’s response to color, confusion, and curiosity become vehicles for emotion. Childhood is not presented as ideal or complete, but as layered, shifting, and unresolved. Ultimately, these works invite the viewer to recognize something familiar, allowing both the image and its meaning to remain continuously reinterpreted.
Artist bio:
Mercer Fustes is a multidisciplinary artist from Austin, Texas. From kindergarten through high school she attended the Austin Waldorf School, an art school based on theology and pedagogy of Rudolf Steiner. Her work blends techniques from childhood watercolors to old master oil painted portrait techniques. Color functions as a primary language in her work; colors do not always define form but translate as emotional experience rather than traditionally descriptive. Mercer is a senior at Wake Forest University majoring in Studio Art and double minoring in Art History and Entrepreneurship. Outside the studio she enjoys baking, cooking, watching soccer and football, reading, and spending time with family and friends.