Although their effect on my art isn't very profound anymore, two of my favorite artists during my freshman year were Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele. It wasn't the sexuality they portrayed, or the "art for art's sake" ideology, but their composition and use of the figure. Nothing deep, really, but the focus on exaggerated shape and the draping of flesh over bones definitely influenced my own portrayal of the figure.

Bill Viola was one of my first exposures to video art, and it has certainly made a huge impact. The semi-mystical, minimal, ritualistic videos I've seen from him have focused an aesthetic for a lot of the concepts I already had. His videos give me goosebumps.

And lastly, house music. Good house music makes me work hard. Not really sure why, but high energy, repetetive, noisy beats cut my distractions and move me to speed up my process. That and it's fun to dance/make.