Something I think about often is the fact that creative people often look to people producing comparable or similar work for inspiration. This makes sense because you need to keep your finger on the pulse of what is happening in your field. I enjoy doing this when I’m already in a project and need to find ideas for new processes or materials. It’s exciting to see techniques and alternate processes emerging from experimentation!

However, when I am between projects or feeling stagnant, I prefer to look to artists who have worked in mediums and subjects that I would not gravitate towards in my own practice. It was actually fairly recently that I realized this may have come out of necessity more than intention. My first step is to open up Kanopy because I love art documentaries, but I would run out of printmaking films by the time I finished a meal (okay, maybe two) so I’ve had to look outside of my own preferred medium for content to feed that part of my brain. I can find things on YouTube if I am craving more, but I actually enjoy the limitation of having to choose something that may seem irrelevant. More often than not, I have the biggest aha moments from something an artist says more than their technique!