Inspiring!

So, lately I've been gathering things together in piles for college and I keep asking myself while holding several items "Which one of these will actually be used/be useful at college the next few months?"

It is with this off-brand of Occam's Letter-Opener that I have been able to pare down my stacks of books, the drawers of old scraps, and whole notebooks of well...notes. (Don't worry, all those lovely notes are digitized and not taking up very much space).

While I've been making these moment-by-moment decisions, I have been questioning things that will help me be inspired while up North. I still want to continuously create art and stories, and I know sometimes with the work load I'll need a little bit of inspiration to spur me on.

I have compiled a list of things that are inspiring right now, this very week and day. They may not hold the same luster in the coming months, but for now they spark me to create:


Gerard Way's Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite; a comic book written by the band My Chemical Romance's lead singer. Awesome story with beautiful colors and illustration.

Alex Pardee's Awful/Homesick art book (which seems to be out of stock now). One of my favorite graphic artists, Alex's work never ceases to inspire and beguile me. Also, the title is ironic for going to college.

My old notes, written hastily on scraps of paper, the corners of calendars, and the backs of receipts. A lot of them have lost their original connections and references, but still stir little segues and peeks into my subconscious/creative mind.

Barry Quinn's work. An awesome recycling-artist, Barry has turned his eco-friendly tendencies into a larger effort for global eco-consciousness. He's been creating artwork that once sold, the proceeds go toward a fund to help clean up BP's awful mistake in the Gulf of Mexico. It was actually Barry's post that inspired me to start this very post.

Go visit him, and maybe when he checks his blog's Stats page he'll see the awesome people going from here to there to appreciate his work. By the way, the new Stats page is just awesome, thank you Blogger team!

So, there's a few things that inspire me. And now I say to you, what inspires you? Comment below (anonymously or namedly).