Where Do Rawry & Pohly Get Their Inspiration From?

"Business Kiwi" by Rawry & Pohly

How do you think of what art to make?

For artists inspiration can sometimes be the most random and nebulous part of the process. I’ll give some examples of things that have inspired us and some ideas on how we get inspired when we’re trying to think of new projects or ideas.

Some Background Information on inspiration and how that applies to us:

We are both creatures of diverse skill sets, hobbies, and interests. This fuels our artwork. 

For us, with a lot of interests comes a lot of potential creations. This is really linked back to acts of play and imagination from childhood. Jamie (A.K.A. Rawry) was really into writing fanfictions as a kid, often self inserts or reimagining the way that the story progressed or one-shots. She would create her own characters, creatures, story arcs, inspired by the content she was consuming. These characters would have their own motivations and challenges, drawn from her own personal experiences in life.

Example: The act of playing around with ‘what-ifs’ can be a great source of content for art, especially if those stem from personal experiences.

Additionally, Jamie believes she has a bit of a genetic advantage for raw creativity, hyperphantasia, often called the ‘muse’ or, as she’s been calling it lately, the ‘well’ (thanks Stephen King for that inspiration). She describes this as an endless tap of intrusive inspiration pouring into her brain, although she cites the difficulty in focusing on completing a project as that requires discipline rather than inspiration, as the inspiration jumps from place to place and doesn’t often stay still, discipline and practice are required to get the work to the finish line. Hyperphantasia is the main inspiration for her visual as well as literary art.

Recently her description of hyperphantasia has evolved with the recent onset of A.I. she finally found the words to describe what the experience is like. Much like ChatGPT, a constantly running A.I. generation machine, her hyperphantasia is always on, and every stimulus in her life is much like a prompt that runs the generator, which then outputs random stories, characters, sometimes in their entirety and sometimes in bits and pieces.

Some of these inspirations are incredibly detailed, she says: “it’s as though a character will suddenly hijack my brain and I’ll be in the middle of a movie or a scene in my mind. It’s incredibly difficult to ignore and if I ignore it, I might lose it or it might come back repeatedly, interrupting my thoughts. Most of the time, if I write the story or idea down, the character or idea will move on to the next. However, if I don’t, I feel a great sense of loss or having forgotten something.”

Although Jamie believes that imagination can be trained or expanded over time, she also believes she has an automatic genetic advantage in this area: Hyperphantasia.

Kevin (Pohly) has a vivid imagination, but he does not describe it with such intrusive language as Jamie does. 

Kevin’s imagination is based on his interests, his artistic studies, and his love of cartoons. As a child Kevin’s interests often got him into trouble. He would walk out of class, which he described as too boring,  and wander off to the library where he would read the animal and bug books, National Geographics, and any natural world book he could get his hands on.

He loved animation and cartoons, especially from the 80’s, 90’s and 2000’s. These inspired the way he interprets characters and their forms. His time in art school heavily influenced his resulting artwork and is a key inspiration behind many of his interpretations and artworks.

So, Where Do Rawry & Pohly Get Their Inspiration From?

Here are some examples of where inspiration might come from:

1. Kevin Chow and Jamie Mason’s personal life, experiences, and interests

   1. Things that we want but don’t exist

   2. Media (tv, books, movies) we’ve consumed but would do differently

   3. Things that we love (bugs, animals, Japans)

   4. Things that we commiserate with (feelings, difficulties, successes)

   5. Artwork that inspired us that we experienced (Interesting styles, uses of shape, etc)

2. The combination of these two when they discuss their ideas together, and bounce them off each other

   1. Sometimes suggestions are easier when there’s a starting point and the art is strengthened in the conversation

   2. Explaining, defending certain aspects of the art, or relenting others show us what we truly believe in in the art piece

3. The communities they are involved with

   1. Jamie Mason worked for just over 7 years for Regina Downtown Business Improvement District in various capacities during her University degrees, which she cites as the reason for her focus on community work and her understanding of how important it is to cultivate community.

   2. Kevin Chow grew up involved in the Chinese community in Moose Jaw, SK enforced by his parents and grandparents. As he grew older, social pressure kept him from returning, as he faced potential ostracism. Now, as an adult, he has fully embraced his community and understands the importance of participating in and preserving it.

   3. Both artists are heavily involved in bird and parrot communities as they own a number of birds.

4. Calls for art with specific prompts, requests for artwork, recommendations, suggestions

   1. These can be incredibly helpful, calls for artwork that have a specific theme can really get our imaginations going!

5. Drawing a shape that turns into an artwork on its own

   1. Sometimes just drawing abstract lines or shapes can lead to a unique discovery! Try playing around with lines and shapes until you see an image.

Try out some of these techniques in your own practice! Inspiration can be deeply personal and fun and they evolve from us, our unique experiences, interests, and communities we engage with, whether it's through hyperphantasia or fascination with nature and animation or something wholly your own.

Also, one final note, remember to also explore and practice with no expectation of producing a result! Sometimes the best way to get over artist block is to make art fun again. Whether it's through adding limitations in or removing them.

And remember, an Artist is someone who makes art!