In our series Behind the Scenes, artists answer questions about their creative process, philosophy, and more. This installment features Faith Holland, an artist, curator, and educator whose multimedia practice focuses on gender, intimacy, and technology. See her Meural Exclusive here. (Read our other exclusive interviews with artists here.)

What 5 things do you have in your studio at all times?

My studio is also known as my bedroom, so it’s got my key tools like my computer, but I also like to have creature comforts like our cats, coffee for the morning, seltzer for the afternoon, and a steady stream of WNYC or a long queue of podcasts.

Is it better for an artist to take herself too seriously or not seriously enough?

I think it’s important for artists to take themselves seriously. Even if the work isn’t serious, even if it isn’t part of a career (that’s ok too!), the engagement with the work should be a serious thing. One should value what they do and respect their own process.

What does your workspace look like?

All art is theft—true or false?

Maybe not quite true or false, but at the very least misleading. I don’t believe in the myth of pure originality without influence—it’s generally either a put-on or makes for some very bad work. But I also dislike framing art as theft, certainly this practice exists but it also tends to make for poor art. Rather, I prefer Nicolas Bourriaud’s idea of artworks as points on a continuum, whether they are revisiting the same concept, style, or specific content. This is particularly useful for thinking about work using appropriated materials (and is from his book that addresses just that, Postproduction), but I think it’s also a useful model for artwork in general, which always builds on the tools, techniques, styles, and ideas already present in (art) history.

What are the 5 most important tools to your artistic practice?

Adobe Creative Suite (kind of a cheat since it’s not a singular tool, but particularly Photoshop, Premiere, After Effects, and Illustrator); Brackets, a rich text editor for HTML, CSS, and JS; email, through which I have hashed out infinite details about work production and exhibitions; and YouTube and Google Image Search, my treasure troves of imagery I use for collage-based work.

Would you rather have not enough to do with your day or too much?

Too much! I have perhaps an unhealthy relationship with productivity, though I taught less last semester and the stress relief was glorious. But normally, I get anxious when I don’t have enough to do.

What’s a work of art that you loved 10 years ago but now hate?

What would you be if you weren’t an artist?

Probably what I already am: an educator! Even before I wanted to be an artist, I always wanted to teach, though the subject matter changed a lot. At various points in my life, I wanted to teach French, English, and Media Studies, but I finally settled on art. Now I find that teaching is its own reward, but it also feeds my practice.

Is it better for an artist to be an optimist or a pessimist?

In terms of the purpose and value of the work, always an optimist. In terms of the viewpoint expressed in the work, ultimately we need both. (In general, I hate prescriptive views on what art should do; it’s an ecosystem, and different kinds of work make it richer.) That said, I often feel, particularly in new media work, pessimistic work dominates and is just too easy. It’s easy, though not unimportant, to critique surveillance, tech monopolies, and Elon Musk. What can we express about these things that points to optimistic futures, alternative ways of engagement, and pleasure? These are some of the questions I ask in my work and value in others’ work as well.

What’s an image that makes you feel old?

What do you consume (art, music, books, film) to help fuel your work?

“Work fuel” comes from so many different places, and I don’t necessarily seek things out in order to make my work. I do, however, consume quite a bit of media. As a New Yorker, I’m surrounded by art and take advantage by regularly going to museums and galleries. Recently, I’ve found a lot of inspiration—somewhat randomly—from antiquities and images of saints. I also read a lot of contemporary fiction, and often science fiction ideas filter into the work as well as nonfiction history of technology and media theory books. Right now, I’m reading Ninth Street Women, a historical nonfiction tome about the women who helped define Abstract Expressionism, even if they aren’t as well remembered by history. Finally, my partner is a film and media historian, so I am often along for the ride for his research, which most recently has focused on director Carl Dreyer whose silent Danish films we’re watching for the first time as well as revisiting his better-known features like one of my favorites, The Passion of Joan of Arc.

What were the last 5 songs you listened to?

I have listened to albums most recently, so to avoid repetition, I’ll list them as such:

Advisory Committee by Mirah

Paper Television by The Blow

“It’s All Good” by El Perro Del Mar

Ananda Shankar by Ananda Shankar

“Common People” by Pulp

Apparently, I was on a nostalgia trip!