A map of self.

People often ask me for the sources of my inspiration. It's a standard and seemingly straightforward question for an artist to encounter on regular basis; just list the artists you admire, right, nothing more to it?It's not as easy to answer as it seems. In fact, I've began to find it very annoying lately. I always hesitate with my response to this most predictable of questions because I find inspiration everywhere and it's very difficult to separate your entire life into neat little compartments of profoundness and non-importance. The truth is that every single second of my life, every single object I've seen, every life encounter I've had and every interaction I've experienced, are continuous constructive forces of my inspiration. Everything I see is internalized and processed into information that is expressed through my work. Yes, sure, like every other creative individual art, books, music, fashion, design and other artists inspire me a lot.  But so do kitchen forks and my hair brush. Garbage trucks can be very inspiring under the right circumstances. And don't get me started on tin foil- that stuff is awesome!Perhaps it's completely unreasonable of me to be annoyed at this question. I keep telling myself that I should be flattered that some people want to know what makes me tick. It is after all an excellent ego massage. It's just, I can't seem to help but find it very futile. Yes, on one hand I know exactly the type of art I love and can give you 50 artists I worship off the top of my head, but does a short list of a few preferred famous names, books and art movements really tell one anything significant about another person? It says almost nothing, because there are  thousands of other people with the same short list as you. It's our unique lives and deeply individual experiences which we live through every day, that make up our inspiration and our influences. But perhaps I'm wrong .....?This is why I find the question about my inspirations very unsettling and difficult to answer. How far do I go? Where do I stop? Good thing magazine interviews have a word limit.Also, this is why I'm going to create a new section on my website where I try to identify as many separate and important inspiration sources which influence and shape my world and my work. A map of self.I'll also do a weekly blog entry about the inspiration of the week. Perhaps some obvious patterns will emerge.About the picture. It was taken for fun. Prosthetic leg was attached to this doll temporarily, while I was evaluating the project goals. I'm still evaluating them.