 I rely a lot on my intuition to know if my work is strong. Like it's like a moment and I know. It's like, it's almost like when you know a truth, when you know something's like true, it's kind of like that. It's like a feeling. That's kind of, like I have moments where I'm like, this is it, this is it. And when I made my first drip sculpture, I had that. So usually I work at night. I'm most productive and creative during those times. I put on like television shows. So I'll like have Netflix playing in the background. Usually like some comment, like something I've seen a lot like the office or it's always sunny in Philadelphia or you know, Family Guy cartoons, something that isn't like very involved that like I could tune in for a second and like get a laugh out of it and then just kind of zone back out. A lot of what I do is I have ideas and you know, I try to find the right materials to make those ideas happen. It's like a balancing act of like idea and then material and then material sports idea and back and forth and back and forth. And that's usually how things start for me. So my process is very experimental. The material is kind of unpredictable. So it is a two-part liquid that you mix together and as you mix it, there's a chemical reaction and it starts to expand. So there's different types of foams out there. There's different expansion rates. There's different densities, you know and all these play a factor. And so because of all these outside factors that I can't control, it has that unpredictability. And what I like is finding that balance between what I can control and what I can't and being able to just let go. So I try to approach it with a very kind of loose structure and allow the material to exist the way it wants to. The foam coming down and it like drips a certain way. It's like a surprise to me. They're kind of everything. Like they make the whole process for me. The other half of my process, which is the spikes that I do allows me to control what I want. So both aspects of the process feeds both sides of my personality. The work, it exists in between those two worlds. It's like beautiful and ugly. The idea that something could be painful and the way people interact with the work is they wanna touch the work. And so to have something that could hurt you but you still wanna touch it, there's this tension there. There's this idea there that, you know I reattracted to things that are painful. It's great when people can connect and like see it in that way. But not everyone gets or sees immediately that there is like a psychological influence in my work. I think there's some things that you're kind of born with, some things that are nurtured through your environment. And I feel like I've been lucky in the sense that I've always been fairly confident. Like I haven't really gone through any stages where I've doubted like my abilities. And so because of that, I haven't really had fears of not being an artist. That's usually where the fear comes from. For me, it's not like, can I do it? It's like, can I survive doing it? I like to surround myself with other artists who are actively in the art world who participate in making art every day. Even if artwork is very different, is the sort of drive to create. I think at the end of the day, that's what it's always about, is the work. Is you and your studio making the work? So like there's all these other things that could happen. Like, you know, you go to a bunch of gallery shows and you can network and you can make all these great connections. But what does that really mean? It's always about the work. It's always about putting in the time to make the work and how strong is the work. I think developing a strong voice is also really important. I value a strong voice and uniqueness. I value what's coming from that specific person versus like technical ability. For me, it's about, is it yours? Like if you wanted to get to know me, you can look at my work and be like, oh yeah, that's Dan. Like, that's her in her work. I personally think being creative means constantly challenging yourself. You know, I have my comfort zones and I have things that I know, things I'm confident about and I always like to continue pushing those boundaries. You're learning and you're challenging yourself. If you do those two things, no matter what it is you're doing in your life, like it will produce creative results. I want to just keep making art forever. I think that's my feel to the goal. I feel like I could, as long as I have my brain, I think I could make things. Even if I lost my hands, I would still find a way to make art. So as long as my brain is still there, I'm good.