Bored Panda got in touch with Sophie to learn more about her creative process and inspirations. When asked how she picks topics for her illustrations, the artist mentioned a few general ideas she circles around a lot:
"• You are doing a good enough job (I have a Substack to that effect.)
• Your kinship ground is important, and you get to build it however you want.
• Embrace the seasons; they have a lot of wisdom.
• Most of life is not an emergency.
• It is deeply, utterly, seriously important to be QUITE silly."
When asked about daily habits that keep her inspired, Sophie shared that she enjoys taking long walks by herself. "Sometimes I listen to music and sometimes I don't, but I generally ask myself, 'What is something that the self I was last week really needed to hear?' I try to think of the pep talk I would have benefited from.
Then, too: I journal every morning before anyone wakes up, and I try to come up with five things to do for that day. I think that a person can really do only five things every day, and we are often deterred by this false narrative that we can do more than that. If you finish the five things, then congratulations! You get to have a cup of tea and look out the window."
Animals often feature prominently in Sophie’s illustrations, so we asked her what draws her to them as subjects.
"For one thing, humans are animals, and I think most of the world's ills stem from our collective tendency to forget that. Animals live moment-to-moment; they take what they need to survive; they seek pleasure and safety; they exist as members of their species and don't try to get famous. (I don't think. There are some penguins who seem to really ham it up in front of a camera.) Animals are sometimes violent, even within their species — but they don't t*****e and mass m****r each other; they don't wage whole decades-long wars because they believe they're right about something. Good job, animals!"
"I generally hope there's a person out there who RIGHT NOW needs to hear whatever it was I needed to hear last week. I hope that we can all learn to be more gentle with each other; to remember that we belong to each other. To laugh sometimes, because life is ultimately short, and you only get one."
