Inspirations

    First and foremost I wanted to say a huge thank you to my late grandma, who pushed me to become an artist. She always encouraged my creativity and became my biggest inspiration in life as a person and artist. She never got to see me make it into art school, but everything I do is for her. Every piece, every essay, is all for her.

   I am heavily influenced by creators all around me, whether it be my own friends or some director I saw one film of for a high school English class I find value in their work. My inspirations are never consistent in themes or genres, as I love exploring a wide range of themes and mediums. I believe that having a well rounded range of inspirations makes for more well informed work. 

Some specific artists who tickle my fancy:

Junji Ito

He inspired my love for making horror-based comics, his work also got me into storytelling through comics when I was in middle school. A lot of his work really spoke to me during this time as I found it edgy, and now I can fully recognize it for its insanely moving and intense graphics and plot lines. 

Tim Burton

My favourite director growing up, many of his films I hold close to my heart now that I am older. His work inspired my early "weird" and "unusual" pieces that I am sure left a few of my elementary teachers scratching their heads. Many of his films inspired me to make claymations as a little kid, which only furthered my love for film and the amount of dedication behind such animations. As an adult his films are a source of nostalgia for me, but occasionally they aid in inspiring some of my more halloween-y pieces. 

Wes Anderson

My current favourite director. I am in awe of his style and I have started to utilize it for my narrative video projects. I find his style of rigid blocking and blunt line delivery to be incredibly unique, a simple yet deeply impactful technique. This type of style allows the audience to analyze every detail within the setting and every emotion from each character. I love unconventional media and his films, though now much more mainstream, still inspire me to keep developing my own unique style. 

Don Perlin

Co-Creator of  Marvel's Moon Knight, he was one of many comic artists I grew up idolizing. His attention to detail in scenes and character designs got me into comic illustration in the first place. I always loved superheros and knew that if I ever pursued the arts I would want to create characters as interesting and lovable as Moon Knight. Despite his character being labelled as 'Marvel's Batman' I love the blend of humour, edge, and justice within his character. 

Shawn Levy

A Canadian filmmaker who I look up to for his construction of plot and staging within his movies. I love how he tackles more action-packed films such as Deadpool 3 and Free Guy, keeping up a light-hearted energy through the film even if it delves into the deep and gory. While the humour within his films is on the cheesier side, I find nothing wrong with it, I love cheesy humour and I think action-packed films need more of it. 

Tracey Emin

She is my biggest inspiration for tackling my more sculptural or darker pieces, as her own work dives into her representations of mental illness. Her work is always so raw and heart touching that I use her as an example of how I need to present my own work to get that same emotion from an audience.