Mike Mignola
http://www.hellboy.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Mignola
Russ Nordman
http://russnordman.wordpress.com/
http://thecinemacity.wordpress.com/
Jody Boyer
http://www.jodyboyer.com/
http://jodyboyer.wordpress.com/about/
Arvo Part
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arvo_P%C3%A4rt
http://www.arvopart.info/
Christoph Buchel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christoph_B%C3%BCchel
http://www.artleak.org/buchel.html
NY Times article about Mass MoCA debacle
Martin Ramirez
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Ramirez
http://www.mam.org/ramirez/
James Valerio (the living artist I like who influences my work):
http://www.artnet.com/artist/17010/james-valerio.html
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_1_92/ai_112131281
Ivan Albright (the dead artist I like who influences my work):
http://www.tfaoi.com/newsmu/nmus40b.htm
Jenny Saville (the living artist I like whose work doesn't influence mine):
http://www.brain-juice.com/cgi-bin/show_bio.cgi?p_id=77
http://www.picsearch.com/pictures/celebrities/artists%20and%20painters/artists%202/jenny%20saville.html
Francis Bacon (the dead artist I like whose work doesn't influence mine):
http://www.leninimports.com/francis_bacon_bio.html
Robert Ryman (the living artist whose work I don't like):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Ryman
Wing Young Huie: http://www.wingyounghuie.com/
Angela Strassheim: http://www.marvelligallery.com/Strassheim1.html
Sibley: http://www.sibleyguides.com/
If you like birds, the Cornell Ornithology website is probably the best resource for bird information on the web, including hundreds of bird song sounds: http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/
Chris Dacre: http://www.chrisdacre.com/index.html
Mattias Adolfsson: http://www.mattiasadolfsson.se/
Khanh Le: http://www.syracusenewtimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1916&Itemid=147
Martha Rosler: http://www.martharosler.net/
See Kara Walker talk about her work and the controversies around it here.