Saturday, October 15, 2011

Steal Like an Artist

A while ago I stumbled on Austin Kleon's blog and a post called How to Steal Like an Artist.  A number of his points resonated with me. Nothing is original.  What we create is a distillation of the things we have been exposed to, the things that we are drawn to and the things that we collect.

When looking for inspiration, grab that thing that sets you on fire...that thing that Jim Jarmusch refered to as "speaking directly to your soul" and run with it.  Or as Twyla Tharp put it...."run like hell".  Use it, refine it, revise it, riff on it until you are sick of it and then move on to your next inspiration.

Austin recently gave a talk at The Economist's Human Potential Summit.  I thought I would share it.

1 comment:

Katie Hanrahan said...

Gail, you have to see the movie Exit Through the Gift Shop. It's fantastic. It's about Street Art, much of which is 'stolen' and re-worked and ruffed on. I think you will really like the movie -- I loved it!