nothing is new except…

Recently I interviewed Jessica from Art & Home (ArtandHome.co). She’s a wonderful watercolor artist in Indiana. We talked about art processes, art business, art everything, for over two hours. I learned so much about the art world and her journey from IU Herron School of Art and Design, to working as a designer at a large media firm, and now to the home-based business she chose to launch and be a stay-at-home mom. One of the things we both agreed on was that inspiration is necessary for art to progress. As Jessica says, “There is nothing new under the sun except that it hasn’t been done by you.” I recently read Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon. The concept is that not everything has to come out of your own head and be an original idea (first of all, that’s impossible), but that we get inspiration from everywhere. Big ideas come from lots of little ideas. “What a good artist understands, is that nothing comes from nowhere. All creative work builds on what came before. Nothing is completely original.” Austin Kleon, Steal Like An Artist.

Before thinking of myself as an artist, one of the biggest mental blocks that I needed to get past was that I do not need to force my brain into conjuring up some far-out idea that no one has ever thought of without parts and pieces from other artists. Again, that’s impossible anyway. Now, if something looks good to me, I put it in my inspiration folder. Artists get inspiration from other artists, who got their inspiration from other artists. Even Picasso got inspiration from Paul Cezanne and African art. And Monet got inspiration from nature and other artists. No one will be exactly like either of them and no one will be exactly like you or me. Now that’s inspiring!