Every artist and designer is pushed by something to create their work. Some gather inspiration from their surroundings while others look to other makers like themselves. We asked five creators to speak about what motivates them and their creative practice.

San Francisco-based artist Kelly Tunstall works in acrylic, collage, spray paint, pencil, pen and ink, gold leaf and some secret sauce. Her experimental yet classically grounded works live somewhat comfortably in a space between graphic expression, stylized representation, surrealism, and sketch. We asked her about inspiration and the origin of her ideas:

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Brian Barneclo is a San Francisco based fine artist and muralist. Drawn to San Francisco by its cultural legacy of innovation and creativity (ie., Beat, Hippie, Punk, Skate culture), he has since found the distinct and interwoven neighborhoods to have had the greatest influence on his work. He describes himself as a “sign painter gone rogue” when explaining his approach- a graphic style born in letterform but with far reaching influences from all sectors of culture. We asked Brian about his process and about what brings his pieces to life:

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Erik Otto is an American mixed-media artist working in the creative disciplines of painting, sculpture and installation. Otto was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, currently based in New York City, with studios in Brooklyn, NY and San Francisco, CA. We asked Erik to tell us what he hopes his audience will do as they view his work:

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Carol Inez Charney is an artist making photo-based work in San Francisco, CA. She uses photography to reinterpret architecture classic painting. She uses water in most of her work on Wescover. Water for her is representative of the past and the present and creates visual pause. We asked her how water informs how she uses materials:

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Settle is the creation of Samantha Heligman, a working artist living in the Austin Area. With a background in painting and photography, she has been working in clay for nearly 10 years and crafting since she was a child. We asked her how she keeps motivated in her creative practice:

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