(J anuary 24, 2008) — While many artists might first look to the standard flower or sunset for inspiration, junior Erin Mooney finds inspiration in all sorts of places – from the lyrics to her favorite songs to a passing thought, everything has the potential to be put on canvas in her own unique style. Mooney’s drawings usually start their journey toward becoming a work of art on a piece of drawing paper, loosely sketched in pencil. This basic drawing is changed, refined, inked, and eventually colored. “It all depends on the drawing and how dedicated I am to it,” says Mooney. “It can take anywhere from two days to two months.” These drawings look good enough on paper, but to really make them look professional, they are scanned into the computer for editing in Photoshop. Much of Mooney’s art is done in this way, and is therefore all kept digitally on the computer allowing her to share her art with the world through websites such as Deviant Art and Facebook. “I like her unique art style,” said junior Jeremiah Garcia. “Very long, lanky figures. Really stylized stuff.” While there is no specific theme spanning across all of her work, much of it is heavily influenced by her favorite band, I Am Ghost. “I’ve adored them for over two years,” Mooney says. “They’re great people and they inspire me.” She has a number of pieces with likenesses of the different band members, but many more that are simply influenced either directly or indirectly by their lyrics. Mooney’s plans for the future include continuing expressing herself through her art, and her ideal career is something that will definitely benefit from this passion. “My artistic aspirations lie in the field of putting ink into peoples’ skin,” says Mooney. Being a tattoo artist isn’t something that comes to mind for many people when considering possible careers. For Mooney, it was something that started as a suggestion from a friend and turned into a dream. “It came from a suggestion from a friend who said I have good bedside manner; something that comes in handy when stabbing needles into people!”