How does an artist find inspiration? Part 2

 


Featured image: Intersections I


Continuing Monday’s question about imitation and originality, I’ve realized that it’s difficult to talk about origins. Instead, I think about creation. I create from what already exists—from tangible things around me. I don’t invent from nothing.

The challenge, then, is not the object itself, but how I use it: how I arrange it, combine it, and mark it with my own ideas. That is where originality lives.

Some works merely imitate. They copy. What we are really searching for is the idea.

As I begin new work, I feel this tension strongly. I look at where art is going and where I want to go, and I return to one simple desire: I want my work to be free. If it imitates, it isn’t free. If my mark imitates, it isn’t free. I will feel it. I will know.

Be ready for the new work. Look for it.

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