“Art is theft”
(Pablo Picasso)
Great Artist Steal. Pablo Picasso is also often quoted as saying: “Good artists copy, great artists steal.” T.S. Elliot,
poet and writer, admits, “Immature poets
imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets
make it into something better, or at least something different. The good poet
welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different from
that from which it was torn.” Nothing
is Original. Jim Jarmusch explains, “Steal
from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour
old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams,
random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds,
bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak
directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic.
Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent.”
Find Something Worth Stealing Today. “Every artist
gets asked the question, ‘Where do you get your ideas?’” writes Austin
Kleon, “The honest artist answers, ‘I
steal them.’ How does an artist look at the world? First, you figure out what’s
worth stealing, then you move on to the next thing. That’s about all there is
to it. When you look at the world this way, you stop worrying about what’s ‘good’
and what’s ‘bad’ – there’s only stuff worth stealing, and stuff that’s not
worth stealing. Everything is up for grabs. If you don’t find something worth
stealing today, you might find it worth stealing tomorrow or a month or a year
from now.” Don’t Neglect Ideas, Take
It. As Mark Twain wisely suggests, “It
is better to take what does not belong to you than to let it lie around
neglected.”
New Idea = Combinations of One or More Previous Ideas. Carl G. Jung, psychiatrist and psychotherapist, observed:
“Our souls as well as our bodies are
composed of individual elements which were all already present in the ranks of
our ancestors. The ‘newness’ in the individual psyche is an endlessly varied
recombination of age-old components.” Austin Kleon also wrote, “Just as you have a familial genealogy, you
also have a genealogy of ideas. You don’t get to pick your family, but you can
pick your teachers… your friends… the music you listen to… the book you read…
the movie you see.” Be Apprentice to
Great Thinkers. “Chew one thinker –
writer, artist, activist, role model – you really love. Study everything there
is to know about that thinker.” “The
great thing about dead or remote masters is that they can’t refuse you as
apprentice. You can learn whatever you wants from them. They left their lesson
plans in their work.”
The title of this article is 100% steal from Austin
Kleon’s book Steal Like An Artist
95% quotes (a.k.a. steal) from various writers
3% edited and modified from people’s writings
only 2% my original words. Come on, steal like an artist!
3% edited and modified from people’s writings
only 2% my original words. Come on, steal like an artist!
“If you steal from
one author, it’s plagiarism;
if you steal from many, it’s
research.” (Wilson Mizner)
God, Give Us
Today Our Daily Idea(s)
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