Fien De Waele Tongeren, Belgium 1H AGO

I use this workflow when I want fresh creative input for my visual work and want to expand my inspiration library in Eagle without collapsing into randomness. The starting point is not a generic prompt like “show me inspiring artists.” I give the AI examples of images, artists, materials, traditions, or visual details that already catch my attention. The AI first looks for patterns in what I respond to: color, material, composition, atmosphere, craft techniques, cultural traditions, natural structures, architectural forms, and more. From there, we branch outward. I explore adjacent references across disciplines, cultures, periods, and materials rather than looking only for visually similar work. I react freely to the suggestions: “This texture, yes.” “This artist, no.” “More of that construction method.” “Less decorative.” “Stranger.” “Older.” “Softer.” Those reactions steer the next round of research. One research session, for example, moved through Indian stepwells; Ajrakh and Bandhani textiles from Gujarat and Kutch; Tibetan/Ladakhi painted textiles; Miao baby carriers; Dong wooden bridges; art from Papua; Russian lubok prints; and even 11th-century goldworking in Panama. These references do not belong to one tidy category, period, or geography. That is precisely the point. The session was driven by visual responses and emerging connections involving color, surface, construction, ornament, repetition, symbolism, material, and technique. Each discovery created a new branch to follow. AI made it possible to move laterally across disciplines, cultures, and centuries without losing the thread of what was visually interesting to me. I then selected only the references that genuinely sparked something and added those to Eagle. The result is not just a collection of “similar images,” but a deliberately expanded visual vocabulary. The human remains the curator. AI expands the search radius; taste decides what enters the library. Sometimes there is no initial research question at all. A joke, misheard word, object, memory, or accidental phrase becomes the seed. The value is in allowing associative drift to continue long enough for a real curiosity trail to emerge. > The research does not always begin with a topic. Sometimes the topic is discovered during the wandering. Step-by-step: 1. I start with a few visual references I genuinely like. 2. I ask AI to identify recurring visual qualities and possible connections. 3. I explore adjacent references across disciplines, cultures, periods, and materials rather than searching only for visually similar work. 4. I react freely to the suggestions, noting what I want more or less of, such as a particular texture, artist, construction method, decorative quality, age, or atmosphere. 5. I let those reactions steer the next round of research. 6. I open the references and collect only the images that actually trigger something. 7. I save those images in Eagle as a curated visual library rather than an indiscriminate image dump. 8. I add useful context through folders, collections, tags, or notes so the references can resurface later.