Every artist needs a muse – how many times have we heard this phrase? An inspiration so to speak, something which drives them. Vince Aletti likened a muse to a mirror; a reflection of their desires, anxieties, dreams and needs. Ross Baldwin said how, without a muse, an artist is simply a madman. Now all that’s fine and dandy, but no one has really touched upon something far more empirical. An inspiration doesn’t necessarily mean the high skies of glory, right? It can also be a path down the wormhole of madness. Shanky, who as it turns out did have all his ambitions fulfilled, did find his muse. It came after a long and arguably hard fought struggle; times marked by questions of… pardon the aggravation, self existential crisis. But like the parting of the dense, dark, grey clouds that reveal the warmth of the sun, it eventually did. Shanky found his muse in the unlikeliest of places; a place that you’ll note he had not even been aware of. But when he found it, you can be assured he didn’t let it go.