1. I can’t live without good light. I’m like a plant that way. My studio is not blessed with north light so having full-spectrum bulbs helps me feel like I do have the light that I want. It’s not the ideal studio for this reason, but we can’t have everything. That said, it’s so much better than candlelight!

2. My books! I love to go to used bookstores. Books have always fascinated me since I was a young child, not only for their illustrations inside, but also their jackets. Well-loved, worn pages and inscriptions in used books hold such power. They were very meaningful to those readers and carried such love.

3. Boxes always carry a mystery: what’s stored in them, what treasures and memories they might contain. It’s quite like meeting a person, who is a vessel in a way, until you get to know them and they open up. Boxes hold a lot of meaning to me.

4. My collection of skulls and bones found on walks with my dear friend and artist Melinda Whipplesmith-Plank on her ranch in Etna, California. I love their contours and the aging from the weathering as well as the stories behind how the animals died and the lives that they supported during decomposition, from bugs to birds to wolves.

5. Music sets a tone and a mood in the studio. I can’t listen to books on tape because I get lost in the worlds of my paintings and when I hear the words from the book, I realize I’ve missed chapters and chapters. With music, it’s different—it’s a way to get lost in time. It’s a communication that can be felt and understood just by its rhythms. —

See more from the artist: www.jhennaquinnlewis.com