For Ciara Myst, RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 18 was a chance to showcase some of the most creative expressions of drag that we have ever seen on the Drag Race runway. While they have left the competition after a very emotional runway performance, there is plenty more to see from this Midwest queen.

I caught up with Ciara Myst to chat about those gloriously out of the box runway presentations, some of the looks we might not have seen on Drag Race, and where her creativity truly stems from.

You were truly a revolutionary queen to watch this season on “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” and your talent show was one of the most unique and truly special performances we have seen during a talent show on the Drag Race stage. Despite the outcome, do you think people were able to relate to it?

Thank you! There were a lot of people who connected with that presentation that were excited to see something unique, but also see something raw and vulnerable but also unfortunately something real and relatable to all of us.

Loss is something that we all have gone through, but to not just put it out on stage to present, but to then be judged for that presentation…was that a hard choice to make?

This idea of rebirth or metamorphosis is nothing new in my art. I have created art pieces in 2017 that were on display in the Mayor’s office in Atlanta in 2019 that were titled “Metamorphosis”. You see the body turned inside out, it was that metaphor and that idea of metamorphosis. That was my way of healing and processing my own darkness and journey to find the light within myself and be reborn as a powerful butterfly. I knew if given the opportunity to go on Drag Race, I wanted to tell that story again and to revisit it because it is something that has saved me many times in my own life. When we lost my drag sister Tristan St. Clair, it affirmed to me that it was not just my story or the story of other people close to me who have battled depression, but it was a story that was bigger than any one challenge on Drag Race that needed to be told. It was more important to me and something that while it was very vulnerable, I felt very proud to bear that type of story knowing that there are far too many people that we lose too young that get stuck in the darkness. It is a conversation that we need to have out in the open to keep these people safe and get people the help and the access that they need. Regardless of how it could be judged or could be received on tv, it was far more important to me as an artist to do something authentic to myself that I could believe in.

This season, you were arguably one of the most eclectic performers on the cast. What was the experience like from your perspective?

My entire experience of filming can be summarized by the word “fun”. That sounds basic, but I love drag, I love my drag and I love other styles of drag, so to able to walk into the Werk Room… I remember saying before I left, “If there are people that are doing anything less than their best that’s gonna piss me off”. I want to walk in and see everyone delivering their style of drag in the highest caliber because then I am going to feel inspired, but it is also going to make help me feel that I am pushing myself in ways that I hadn’t before; and that is what happened I that Werk Room.

Every day I got to walk in and have fun, every day everyone lined up for the runway and I was able to look around like, “Damn we all look fierce”! The best part of our specific casting was that everybody was in their own distinct swim lanes and I think you’re hitting on some of that with my presentation of drag. We all tackle each runway and each challenge in a way that is so uniquely us. Yes, we’re in a larger competition with each other, but we’re really in a larger competition with ourselves. How do we tackle this in our way that feels authentic to us, that elevates our artistry with each passing challenge? That was such a gift to enter the Werk Room and have this experience with this particular cast; I wouldn’t trade that for the world.

What do you think your rose and thorn are of your entire "Drag Race" experience?

I think my thorn is that it was cut short. My drag shape-shifts in a variety of ways and we were really just scratching the surface of that. As much as people might have anticipated from the Meet The Queens that I was going to get read for having overdrawn lips or “she’s doing prosthetics” or “she’s doing okay - spooky they’re going to tell her to change it up”, well I beat them to the punch-I changed it up every single week. You weren’t just getting alien, you weren’t just getting horror, you would also get glamour, you also get silly, sexy, we were just scratching the surface of what else I was going to share with the world including maybe a himbo daddy Ciara Mystr stomping down the runway? I think we were cut short on some gag-worthy runways even though we had plenty to serve to them in the time that I was there.

My rose was-and it sounds hokey-being able to stay true to myself. I think it’s very easy for people to watch a show and feel like the people they’re watching are caricatures, put on, or the things we do on TV are just for the camera. I made a promise to myself that I would be, for better or worse, earnestly myself every single day. I think that comes true as I watch it back, the decisions that I make are ones that I make because I’m proud of them or because I love them. I do drag so that I love it and if it’s not your style of drag, then don’t buy a meet and greet ticket. if you love it though, you’re coming to the show with me.

Are we going to be seeing Ciara Mystr on Instagram?

Everybody definitely should be tuned in and subscribed to my YouTube channel. You’ll see a full length video of my talent performance, a beautiful concept video filmed by a trans filmmaker here in Indianapolis, Alice Anarchy. You also see my makeup transformations every week, videos of how I made all of my runways with my community here in Indianapolis. For certain types of photo shoots you may have to hop on over to Patreon because Meta and Instagram have some funny censorship rules. I don’t know that everything from Ciara Mystr to a few of my other runways are allowed on Instagram. Make sure that you are checking out the Ciara Myst Patreon to see all of the fabulous photo shoots that I have in store for you.

What is the most wildly outlandish and creative thing that you have ever created and walked out onto a stage in during your career?

That is such a loaded question (laughs)! I don’t know that I would say specifically the most creative, but I would say that the chameleon that I presented on the runway was one of the largest artistic feats that I tackled in prepping for any project. In Whatcha Packin’, you do get a closer look. Everything from sculpting a 10-foot tongue out of clay and molding it so that we could create it, rhinestoning the eyes on the fly and giving it lashes because that’s camp and silly, airbrushing a bodysuit and covering it in what I could imagine are five thousand pearls and stones, it was a beast of work for this animal runway. I am so proud of the community that was able to bring it to life.

From the beginning of your drag career, have you always had this especially creative eye that you saw your career through?

I think anyone who would tell you that even before I started drag, that was my MO; anything that I do is filled with passion. I think you see that in my runways, my talent, and how I talk to people in confessionals and even in this interview. It's very easy to put my entire heart into something that I believe in and when it comes to my art, I was raised with incredibly supportive parents who taught me that anything was possible and they instilled that belief in me. I think that’s what allows me to take things to the nth degree when it comes to my art. When I see something and I sketch it out, I am so thrilled at the opportunity to bring it to life and see it become a living breathing creation of its own. Drag has allowed me to that over and over again.

What does Ciara Myst have in store for the world post-Drag Race?

I am so excited to connect with the world since my time on Drag Race was cut short. People can definitely find me week after week on social media so you can continue to have me on your screens. I am so thrilled to be traveling to a city near you where you can meet me in person and see me perform something other than a depression poem (laughs). I am excited to appear on some upcoming red carpets for horror films and to cross over in spaces where people may not expect drag. As a lover of comics books, Sci Fi, horror and fantasy you can expect to see Ciara Myst in some of those spaces. If you are a nerd with tickets to Comic Con, let’s connect!

Follow Ciara Myst on Instagram @the_ciara_myst