Autumn Whitehurst
Illustrator/ Co-Creator Wayhome Tarot
Where were you raised? Has the landscape of that place influenced your work in any way?
I was raised in New Orleans along the river where my immediate family still live and oh my god yes I am deeply shaped by that city. It is a constant feast for the senses!
The calliope music that comes off the river, the heavy nodding Brugmansia blooms, the scent of Jasmine vines and Sweet Olive trees during a warm evening, the ever present music on the streets, the food, the river, the altars that populate every nook…I could go on and on and on. I grew up in a little house that was made from the wood of barges that used to go up and down the Mississippi. The house was built before the civil war and is high enough off the ground that my brother and I used to crawl under it and dig for remnants of the past. My brother was quite a wild child, brought home every kind of wild creature he could find. My father worked at sea and is now a retired tug boat captain. My mother is from Vietnam and so our home was vibrant with the gifts of her culture. I ate books with my eyes, just read all the time and when I wasn’t reading I was taking my bike across the river on the ferry so that I could cruise around downtown and enjoy the shade of the Live Oaks.
Needless to say, New Orleans is also a deeply spiritual, super magical city. The unseen have a very potent presence and it can even be felt in the more rural areas outside the city proper. My imagination never lost stimulation as there was so much to wonder about. I think the city and its culture influenced the work I was creating while I was in art school…but then I took a sharp right and have worked as a commercial illustrator for most my professional career. Most of the work created has happened in a lifestyle / beauty / fashion genre.
(maybe it was 3 years ago?) I paused to co-create the Wayhome Tarot with my friend Bakara Wintner, so I am circling back around to a more occult context.
The creation of that deck has given me back so much more than I expected in return. It’s been incredible witnessing all the ways that people are working with it. It’s always beautiful and terrifying at the same time.
What book are you reading?
If I could extend my life longer than is natural it would only be so that I could get to the end of my list of books but there will never be an end to the list. When I became 40 I found myself unable to enjoy fiction the way that I used to, however at the moment I’m reading Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, which is the 3rd fiction novel I’ve read in 6 years. I’m also reading American Cosmic and also Chained to the Land, which I picked up while visiting the Whitney Plantation in Louisiana during my visit with my family early this year. And I'm also revisiting a personal collection of poems by a dear friend…it's teaching me about the power of poetry.
What was the last thing that you fell in love with?
In my present circumstances it’s most certainly the woods, the trees and the children of my friends, Juniper and Desmond.
We’ve been quarantining with said friends in upstate New York and this is the first time I’ve spent so much time in a rural area and this is the first time I’ve spent so much time with such young ones.
While here I’d decided to resolve my fear of being deep in the woods alone as it was important to me that I have an open experience of that environment. The fear has now been replaced with enchantment! When I’m hiking I am in my reality amongst many other sentient beings and I’m in awe of all the various expressions of life.
As for my relationship with the little humans, I am fascinated by their incredibly rapid development…to witness these little spirited beings sprout so quickly is extraordinary.
What do you love most about yourself?
If my curiosity were to be taken away, I’d have to change my name!
What do you think is the most important quality in a human?
Imagination, self awareness, humor…
Without imagination, we can’t reach into the unknown. Without self awareness our agency is compromised. Without humor, we’re drowning.
Do you have a spiritual practice?
I do! It’s multifaceted and full of experiments and experiences and I like to drink from all the various wells. With time these curiosities will streamline into something sleeker and will become more of an intensive discipline, but one of the most important realizations about this path so far has been that my spirituality must be experiential to be of value to me. When I’m disciplined about my practice, I am amazed at what I learn that is *through me.
Who are your role models?
My grandmother, Audrey Kay Whitehurst ♡
I took the train down to see her every Thanksgiving for 26 years. I’ve never known anyone so tough, so sharp, so inspired, so cunning, so alive as my grandmother and I love so much that her blood runs through my veins. I should really remind myself of this more often, it would be helpful when my reality seems to be coming unhinged.
If you could change one thing about our world, what would it be? Is there a individual or an organization doing work in this area that you want us to know about?
At the moment, I would want to change the way we understand power. There’s not a specific individual or organization that I could suggest but really an exercise in this that we could perform, beginning now, is awareness of what calls for our attention. There is choice in what we give our attention to if there is enough awareness, and choice is fundamentally the essence of power.
Before I die I want to…. Fill in the blank
…experience all the people and places and music and stories and cuisines and things-created and the great natural wonders of the world and all the various cosmologies. Also I’d love to zoom around the solar system in a rocket ship while eating a grilled cheese sandwich…that would truly be fabulous!
All photos courtesy of Autumn Whitehurst
