STEAL LIKE AN ARTIST

There is nothing new under the sun, so don’t be afraid to draw inspiration from different places

Are you searching for an idea? An original idea? Are you stuck? Well don’t fret, there’s no such thing as an original idea. Any idea today is based on another that predates it either as a loose basis or a complete “rip-off”. You’re probably thinking it is theft to use someone else’s idea to make yours, well you’d be right, it is theft, but then that is just what art is.

Not talking about the movies with museum robbery jobs or diamond heists, the term “art is theft” as said by the renowned artist Pablo Picasso is to mean that art is a subtle imitation of another work of art. Call it indirect inspiration or musing, most of the ideas today grew out of older ones or are simply a continuation of them. Don’t feel guilty if you find better application or interpretation for an idea.

You are encouraged to surround yourself with material from which you can “steal”. Don’t read or give attention to anything that cannot inspire you to form a new idea. If you only find things you aren’t interested in stealing now, let it sit, it might be worth stealing sometime in the future. If it is worth stealing now, steal it and move on to the next thing that catches your eye.

But what does this mean, really? It is hope for the many people out there struggling to snatch an idea from thin air and make a major breakthrough. This is a wakeup call for them, telling them that “nothing is original”, if you look hard enough you will find references. So instead of rummaging through never-before-seen work of research, simply reach for an old text and get inspired. 

You probably believe that going to school is all you need to break the “no original idea” cycle, if you went to school, then you’d be well equipped to create novel ideas. Well, sorry to disappoint you, but the ​school does not guarantee an “education”. Nothing is absolute, so why should acquired knowledge be? It is your responsibility to get an education, regardless of whether you are in school or not. Google stuff, go to the library, read as much text as possible. Knowledge is not static, so neither should your need for it be. 

As you read, so as not to get swamped by the volume of random information, it is advisable to pick one artist/person/role model and just grow from there. By studying one person you love/are interested in at a time, you are able to see into their own separate life and trace down any connections they might have had. Maybe their inspiration was another artist, a composer or a dancer, you can read up on them too and so on and so forth. Soon enough, you’ll have become a part of the connection yourself.

Whatever piece of information you come across that piques your interest, you should keep, always have the​ means to store for later, a camera or a sketchpad or a memory stick. An artist is one who stores up inspiration for later use, the inspiration is usually such a thing that excites his mind into thought. 

The best process is the process of creating art that defines and excites you

Sometimes, we are limited by our own identity — or lack of one. We are scared to start something because we don’t yet know who we are in full and we don’t know what we want to do or how to do it. This is where the artist in you has to come out to shine. Nobody is anybody when they’re born. Genetically, we are a collection of our parent’s chromosomes but yet that doesn’t define us, we become something else as a result of our own experiences and choices.

So, if you fear starting on your idea that scares you, you should. Even though you don’t know what you are trying to do, let that uncertainty be your defining moment. It is best to fake it till you make it. If you have a job in mind, dress for it every day until you get it. This all sounds romantic and abstract, so instead you can do what all great artists do and copy their heroes. We all have heroes in our various fields of interest, we may want to be as huge as them and maybe even bigger. To do so, we must study them and unravel the process behind their art. 

Simply copying your hero will only make you a copycat and you’ll be in the shadow of your hero indefinitely. To truly become your own person, you should study your heroes, don’t copy their work, instead break it down and find your own unique way to do it. Imitation is flattery as long as you aren’t plagiarizing someone else’s work as yours, look at the comic book giant DC Comics, they have several other companies who use this helpful advice to copy and reverse engineer characters instead of copying and slapping a new name on the character. 

Finding yourself is easy when you take the path of copying your idols because as humans, we can’t make perfect copies. As such, we will remain ourselves but with a dash of our idols sprinkled on us. So, to be you, you need to try and fail to be someone else, ironically. 

Once you’ve found yourself, does it end there? No. you want to create art, that business, that pitch that will be the next big thing, so how do you do it? It actually is quite simple, imagine what your idol or hero would make/do and go ahead to make a follow up. If your hero made a movie, then you should write a sequel for it. The advice is when you feel stuck, do what you like. That idea that excites you the most, invest in it, do it instead. Some experts will tell you to do what you know, but this is vague and you’re always going to be more comfortable doing what you like rather than what you know. 

If it excites you and keeps your mind buzzing, then that is the art, business, investment for you. Once you find your identity in practical action, this should be easy for you. Decisive action will go a long way to help your art and ultimately your life.

You can’t make art by being detached, art is a hands-on experience

Your hands might be your greatest tool for making art. In a world where we are so used to laptops and other digital devices that are supposed to aid our creative process, our creativity has actually been dulled down. For example, the laptop invites you to hurriedly delete or edit an idea or a line of a poem without letting it form. These devices have made us into harsh critics.

To really fully embrace art, we must distance our creative process from the screens of our digital devices until we are ready to edit and publish. An artist’s workshop should inspire creativity not make producing art a monotonous activity. We rely greatly on the automatic sentence correction, so much so that we don’t even use our own words anymore. It isn’t art if there isn’t some kind of imperfection, it is time to go back to the paper and dirty easel and make art that you can enjoy making; art that you can let evolve as it is formed. 

To some, art might be a hobby, just a side job for when our regular work has become tiring. And as such, art doesn’t get as much attention as it should, it is regarded as too unimportant and reserved for pastime activity. But in truth, hobbies can actually be very lucrative, if you know just how to harness it. There is a saying that the work you do when you are not working is the work you will love doing for the rest of your life. Why not allow your hobbies to make some money even as they bring you joy and fulfilling stimulation? 

You’ll probably think it is too expensive to invest in your many hobbies/passions, that it is best to just pick one and focus on it. But this is a terrible decision and it can haunt you for the rest of your life. Whatever passions you have, whatever hobbies you’re drawn to, don’t give them up. That career you think will do better if you had less hobbies will benefit from having more in reality.

Hobbies have a way of freeing your mind and give you a feeling that you are doing fulfilling work. Now, imagine you take this feeling from 2-4 different enjoyable passions and channel the positivity to your regular day job, you’ll agree that you’d be in a better mood and you’d be able to do your work better thanks to the passions. If it’s painting, bungee jumping or karaoke, do it, it is amassing positivity and free energy for your work day. 

Maybe your hobbies are great, lucrative even, and you are wondering how you’ll get the public’s attention for your work. Well, this would have been quite difficult in the past where we had to rely on the mail and radio, but now we have the internet and social media platforms that have access to a large and growing audience. If you want to get people to notice you and your work, then put it out there. 

You must remember there’s a system to it, you don’t just put out any kind of work. You are trying to get people’s attention and show them how good you are at the same time. So, you should first put out good work and keep doing so until people notice. The good part about this is that while you’re getting your hands busy (and dirty, of course), nobody knows you yet so there’s no real pressure to impress anyone but yourself. Use the anonymity to create a niche for you and your art and make sure when you're ready to show the world, they’ll be so shocked they won’t know what hit them.

The internet makes everything easier by putting the world right in your hands

It used to be that if you wished to connect with people and art, you’d have to travel to do so. But with the advent of the internet, a lot has changed and you could be in Stockholm at the push of a button. We and our ideas are no longer limited by geography which means you can change the world from your backyard or basement. 

What does the world have to give you, though? Now that it is at your fingertips, what is supposed to follow? Well not much in today’s world, the trick is to make your own world and this in turn will make the world yours. Simple, right? How do you make your own world? By distancing yourself from the distractions of the mundane world and surrounding yourself with a wealth of inspiration; books, records, paintings, etc.

These will help drown the sound of the outside world and create enough vacuum for you to form a new world for yourself. Take notes, whatever you do, always take notes or make recordings, whatever suits you, it will form the blueprint for your brave new world.

Sometimes, our surroundings might become too familiar and cease to inspire or challenge us in anyway, what then? We move, we leave “home”. Home here represents any place we’re most comfortable and familiar with. To jolt your mind into creative mode, you must first make it uncomfortable by snatching it from its comfort zone and introducing it to a new, different and exciting environment.

Change like this is always good for creativity, as it challenges the mind to adapt to its new surroundings and in doing so, it creates wonderful coping mechanisms that can be harnessed into art. You can always return home when you feel the external stimulation is enough, but now you can integrate your new experience into your home space.

Always remember, as you travel to find newness or sit at home to create your own world, that, friends are essential. The world you have explored or created is always a small one and it fits everyone you know and everyone they know too, always be nice to friends and ignore enemies. Surround yourself with people that can inspire you (people you can steal…learn from). It is important to always be in the presence of people who are better informed and best suited to teach on a subject matter, these are the people whose input will echo years later in your work unknown to you.

And when you wish to use the data you have collected in your new world to form art, business, and so on, don't seek anyone’s validation before you execute it. a lot of ideas have died waiting for approval. It is your idea and even though people will misinterpret it and judge it harshly, you know its worth and should stand by it. if you’ve spent your time studying your heroes and you’ve created an identity for yourself, there’s a high chance your work would be excellent, you just have to believe it is. 

If you are still having doubts about your work or if you worry whether people will like it, you should take note of the positive comments you might have gotten along the way on other projects you’ve shared. They can serve as a boost to your morale, they’re reminders that you can make good work that people can understand, enjoy and appreciate. Just don’t get stuck reliving past glories, let them be a push not a rest stop.

There is no greater work of art that you will create than your life

When all is said and done, a lot of people rarely have plans for their lives and they end up burning out, fading away before reaping the rewards of their art. You want your art to outlive you, but this isn’t an indication that you desire a short life, so you must take action to live better and take care of yourself.

The tortured artist stereotype will almost always lead to burnout and often zero monetary rewards. That’s why the author suggests that you make it a priority to take care of yourself: sleep more, eat healthier, exercise more and take as many breaks as your body requires. There is little money in art at the start, so it is advisable to save any you get. Don’t be a frivolous spender, invest in your retirement and make sure you’re alive long enough to use the funds.

As said earlier, there isn’t all the glitz and glamour in the arts, so if you have a job that pays well and affords you the time to invest in your art, then you should try your hardest to keep it. The thing with jobs is that they can be boring and they’ll make you hate waking up every day. The trick is to find one that you actually can tolerate. Finding a good job is difficult, but not impossible. Things to look out for in a good job: pays well enough, doesn’t require too many hours, affords you enough time and energy to indulge in your passions. Once you find a job that has all these attributes, don’t let go. 

In your free time, you should keep a calendar, a way to track your daily progress on a project or piece you’re writing. This way, you can simply tick off a day and go back to check what days you missed and make up for it when you can. A calendar is like a glaring reminder that YOU HAVE TO WORK, rude but subtle and you don’t mind, you need the push.

It also helps to keep a record of your day — just the good things and people you encountered, in a book or a digital storage device. This forms a collection you can always go back to when you lose track of where you are going and how far you've come. It is a grand guide that will lead you to where you are going to with the luxury of pleasant memories as your company. 

Lastly, to ensure that your life truly is a completed and perfected work of art, marry well. Your partner has a profound influence on your life, art and career. They may not even know it, but they do. The choice in a spouse is critical to your work, if you married someone who couldn’t care less about your ambitions or talents, then they’ll wither away in no time and you’d have lost the identity you spent years creating. Your partner should be your partner in every sense of the word, they should collaborate with you and plan just how a presentation should go and you can even preview your work for them to critique or improve. You want to indulge in that passion — work or art, for life and as such you want someone in your corner who’s always going to be there to support you. 

We can be faced with limitations in our “art”. Often, we see these as a bad thing but limitations are actually freeing. If you have a business idea but no funding, propose it anyway, if you have a movie idea but no camera, then use your smartphone. never give excuses, engage in proactive procrastination — put one work aside and do another but return to that work again to finish it. Creativity isn’t easy but the fun thing is that there are no rules, you make them. So, when you are making you next big movie or writing your next business proposal, remember there are no rules for what to add or leave out, you get to decide.

Your life will be your greatest work of art, it will be placed on stage and examined long after you’re gone. Do you want to be remembered for being a flash in the pan creative or for living a lasting legacy that will outlive the stars? The choice is yours, choose a healthy, regular, boring life today and you’ll be glad you did.

Conclusion 

Art isn’t limited to the definition on the internet, it revolves around just about anything you can imagine. If you create it, it is art, in your own world of creativity. Whether it’s a new app or a business plan or a design for airplanes, its art and you need to be more intentional about how you handle your work. A lot of “artists” get derailed and drop their passions because of impatience or inconvenience, it is important to note that you must have faith in your abilities and in your work. It is most important to be always willing to learn, to adapt and to experience new challenges as you pursue your passion or career.

Surround yourself with material on a particular artist or role model, study their lives, their work, their process and don’t just try to copy and become them, use their material as clay to build your own identity.