before attending university, major had little exposure to the arts, saying "as a kid i didn’t know you could be an artist. i didn’t know that was something like that was an option." she was strongly influenced by robert rauschenberg, saying "because of him i can make anything i want." she was also influenced by the paintings of wassily kandinsky and artists such as lynda benglis, nancy graves, richard pousette-dart, and kurt schwitters.