Thank you! The design was honestly inspired by Marie's love of berrrs. I am pretty sure she has the biggest collection. I don't make them anymore so hopefully some day I will get terribly famous and she can get filthy rich. The composition was similar to something I made for a short run of tees I made about a year ago. I wanted to incorporate as many as my characters as possible and still make a cohesive piece.

Hmmm...yeah, I am not that great at naming my creatures. I used to name my berrrs by imagining what they would say if they could talk. Like "grrrrr" or kerplick." I have lost some gusto on naming each one, I have made so many! I hate naming my paintings, because it's like, "I know the answer and this is what it is." I like my work to be subjective. I think of my little creatures as androgynous and nameless. That lets the owner make it their own, and whatever they want it to be. Back to the question, I used to spell mooshees differently, but that name was already being used so I changed it. But I think of mooshees as little mushroom characters "mushees" -when I started making the cooshees I thought of them as little Creature mooshees hence "C-ooshees!" Haha! Brilliant. Not. Ug....haha.

My work has changed terribly. I really didn't get truly inspired until a few years ago when I found out about low brow art and illustration. If I could go back to school today, I would get so much more out of it. My work then was pretty terrible. Sssshhh! Don't tell anyone. I went to a highly conceptual school; I would have been better off at a trade or technical school. It killed any faith I had in my art for a long time.

No, I haven't. But I do have some projects in the works so stay tuned. I have always hated writing. It seems so laborious and hard. but I do make up stories in my head as i am drawing. I really need to get them down on paper. I have a feeling some sort of storytelling is eminent. To be a successful artist, commercially, you really have to have the whole package and be able to do EVERYTHING. From running a business to being a sales person of your own work and staying productive and creative on top of that . And you've got to have super thick skin. The amount of door slams and rejections is really mind blowing. I just have to pick myself up and keep going. I am hoping if I hit the wall enough times it will fall down. And I will be able to pay the rent! But it is awesome when I am able to do things that I used to dream about doing. I was recently in the Kokeshi group show at Subtext with so many artists who have been huge inspirations to me. And I have been showing with Thinkspace gallery, which i am really happy about. And I've got some other cool "collaboration" projects coming up.

I have been really into gouache. An old coworker gave me some as a gift and I have been hooked ever since. I used to use strictly acrylic. I still use acrylic for al my figurines. I really want to do more ceramics & precious metals, I have always wanted to work with porcelain.

I have always had the sense that I wanted my own business, even before I knew exactly what it would be. I guess i am still not sure. My maiden name was "Melissa Anne Anderson" it was so common I wanted to come up with something unique short and catchy. My dad had a super long nickname for me when I was little " Missy Melissa Sue Anne Axelhoney Sugar Baby Anderson" - that's where axelhoney came from. I think Axel was a local blacksmith and fellow Swede in the small town where he grew up. My dad wanted to give us all Swedish names but my mom wasn't having it.

No pets. I used to have some goldfish in an oak barrel pond. I miss them terribly. My dream pet is a Boston terrier. It's just not feasible right now. I never thought of myself as a pet person but I worked in an office where there was a french bulldog always around and I am now a convert. I think that animals represent all that is good and right in the world.