Austin Kleon Blog

I really like the quote, "If you steal from one author, it’s plagiarism; if you steal from many, it’s research,” by Wilson Mizner. Recently, I have been researching many artists to see if I am inspired by any of their pieces and often times I feel as though am I just coping their ideas and their work. This quote is saying that people take ideas from artists all the time, but it is not "plagiarism", it is just part of the research process for an artist. By taking other artists ideas I am just gathering and collecting some background information to see which techniques and images I like. From there, I can take those techniques and make them my own.

A strategy that was in the reading and that I have been doing more of is to just stop thinking so much and just create art. In the reading Austin Kleon says, "If I waited to know “who I was” or “what I was about” before I started “being creative”, well, I’d still be sitting around trying to figure myself out instead of making things. In my experience, it’s in the act of making things that we figure out who we are." This helped my to realized that the more art I create the easier it will be for me to find out what kind of artist I am and what strategies and techniques really work for me. My creative will evolve the more I create artwork.