Lynch cites numerous sources of inspiration in the work, including the 1948 film The Red Shoes—which is about a ballet dancer who gives everything for her craft much in the same way that Lynch gives everything for her art—as well as tragic and powerful feminist icons; such as the late contemporary artists Pina Bausch and Amy Winehouse, and Joan of Arc, Icarus and Artemis, the magic realism of Japanese anime and the twin concepts of beauty and death depicted in 17th century Dutch Still Life painting.