John Baizley, Defeater, Tekkonkinkreet

Well to start off, an artist whose work I find truly inspiring would be John Baizley. If anybody knows who this is, it happens to be the singer for the band Baroness. He does all of the band's artwork as well as work for countless others. But his work isn't simply about the commercial aspect. He made it very clear in an interview that his work is very personal and all contains meaning. It was personal enough that he didn't want to talk about. He uses amazing color, fantastic figures and incredible detail. I hope to bring something from him into my work.

Next would be the band Defeater. I've basically been listening to them on loop lately so they are most definitely feeding me something. They have an individual sound that not many hardcore bands have. All of their songs are so full of emotion and depth. Reading the lyrics and hearing the band talk about their songs makes you realize how personal they are as well. They songs relate to each other and touch back on parts of other songs, including ones from other albums. The song Quiet the Longing is on of my favorites from the newest CD. Here are the last few lines to give you an idea if you don't want to listen to the song in the link:

“You coward - this is your fault
Our family has lost everything”
Look down at your hands and your lit cigarette
Put it to your lips and breathe it in
Everything starts to fade and your body is numb
And when you wake in the morning - you’re in the house all alone

Lastly I'm going with the movie TekkonKinkreet. It's an anime movie because I'm a huge nerd and I've watched about a million times. But it doesn't get old. The animation itself is gorgeous (don't let the ridiculous design throw you off) and it has such an amazing style. The story is about these two brothers that complete each other even though they are alone. And when they get seperated it's devastating. No need to explain the whole things but understand that the movie in itself is a beautiful piece of artwork that gets me everytime. watch it.