Lately, when I’m looking for a bit of evocative inspiration, I’ve been turning to my sense of smell. I’ve read that odors and emotions and memories all meet up in an area called the limbic system to electrify your brain stem and trigger strong memories – so here’s what I did today: I’m working on a labor-intensive illustration for an agency in LA and it’s been a struggle. They want me to capture a summertime feel in an interpretation of an architect’s CAD drawing and I wasn’t feeling it. So I slathered on some Coppertone and after a few whiffs, I was feeling the beach again. The drawing got more positive and I felt energized. Like a switch got flipped. I did the same thing this past winter when I was working on a gift card drawing of a snowman. I built the snowman then brought the wet wooly mittens into my studio. The winter smells triggered something that got me energized. It doesn’t work all the time – I just drew a garbage truck for the WSJ – but sometimes it really helps me focus. Bizzaro?