ITAP Week 3 Connectivity

As artist nothing we do is “original” it’s all connected to someone else’s ideas. It is essentially stealing. But where do we draw the line at stealing someone else’s ideas? Even great artists such as Pablo Picasso have done it. For example his painting of Las Meninas, he got the idea from another painting by Diego de Silva Velazquez, which was also called Las Meninas. The only difference is that Picasso’s painting was done 300 years after Diego’s and this shows that took the idea from his painting but put his own twist on the idea making it his own. Picasso is famous for saying “great minds steal” by this he means that good artists look at other artists work and take inspiration from what has gone before them using it in their own way, making something different based on the same idea. Another way artist get their influence is by looking at different forms of historical culture. For example many artists such as, Masaccio and Ron O’Donnel have looked at the creation story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. As well as this artist have draw inspiration from myths and legends about Greek gods and other figures of worship in religions. An example of this is a statue of the goddess’s ceremonial apron has had a modern twist on it using a photo of a women then editing it. Another piece of historical culture that artist have drawn inspiration from is the supernatural. Probably the most famous pieces are the five Cottingley Fairies photographs. These pieces were several years later, in the 1980s, were revealed to be fakes which at the time cleared up any uncertainty people had about their authenticity at the time of their release. But they have inspired many other artists such as Matt Collishaw, Rankin (Nokia) and was even part of a recent BBC advert. This all shows that to be a good artist/ designer you have too look around at what other artist and designers have done in the past and to use what you like from their work and not to be scared about admitting that that’s your inspiration because it is what every one does because nothing is “original” its all recycled ideas done in a new way.