Austin Kleon
By Ashley Andrews, 700 Club Interactive
CBN.com –"Nothing is completely original. All artists' work builds on what came before. Every new idea is just a remix or a mashup of two previous ideas." ~ Austin Kleon
Like most young adults, Austin Kleon thought that he would conquer the world. But it took nearly ten years for him to realize just what it takes to make a name for yourself, especially if you are a wanna-be artist. It was in 2010 that Austin made his mark in the writing world. He had his first book published - Newspaper Blackout, a poetry book that used blacked out articles from newspapers. And as his book became more popular, more people began visiting his blog. And as more people visited his blog, more people began commenting on his work. As he shared, "What's fun about being online and about blogging is that you get educated by all your readers...People left me comments like, 'Oh, dude, this is totally like Tom Phillips' or 'This is like Ronald Johnson - you should check this out.' And because of that, I started amassing information about all these great people who'd come before. It was in some ways a defensive move on my part, because I didn't want people to think, 'This kid thinks he's invented this. 'And so, I admitted, 'No, I'm not the only person who's ever done this; here's the background, go check these people out.' I even included a reading list of all the artists in history who ever used cutups." And that's when Austin realized something that changed the way he saw his work, art and life.
WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR IDEAS?
According to Austin, if every artist answered this question honestly, then the answer would be, "I steal them." How so? Well, as he sees it, everything has all ready been done - yes, even in the world of art, everything is a revision of something else. "The writer Jonathan Lethem has said that when people call something 'original,' nine out of ten times they just don't know the references of the original sources involved. What a good artist understands is that nothing comes from nowhere. All creative work builds on what came before...It's right there in the Bible: 'There is nothing new under the sun." And this applies to everything that we are and do.
For Austin, genetics is a prime example. Think about it like this - "You have a mother and you have a father. You possess features from both of them, but the sum of you is bigger than their parts. You're a remix of your mom and dad and all of your ancestors. 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 and you can pick your friends and you can pick the books you read and the music you listen to and the movies you see. You are, in fact, a mashup of what you choose to let into your life. You are the sum of your influences." We are, as the German writer Goethe wrote years ago, "shaped and fashioned by what we love."
YOUR AUDIENCE - Steal Like an Artist
When starting out on a new project, whether it is an art piece, a film or a novel, the artist has to consider the audience. And for Austin, his audience started with just him. "It's one of my theories," he described, "that when people give advice, they're really just talking to themselves in the past. And this book, Steal Like an Artist, is me talking to a previous version of myself...a young, hungry, confused artist just starting out...when I first set out to write, I thought I had it all together. But the thing about creative writing workshops in college is that they're the perfect, artificial environment for writers: your teacher is getting paid to pay attention to your writing, and your fellow students are paying to care about your writing. It's what every writer dreams of: a captive audience. Then, you get out of school and you realize that nobody really cares about you. That really paralyzed me, and it took me a while to really be honest about what I liked and what I wanted to be writing." But luckily, in 2011, Austin figured out what he wanted to say.
He wrote a blog that eventually became a Ted Talk. And as he remembered, "It spread around the internet, and I kept getting positive feedback from people of all ages and occupations. So, then I decided it was time to write the book. And for this, I wanted it to appeal to anyone and everyone who's trying to inject a little creativity into their life and work. These are things I've learned over almost a decade of trying to figure out how to make art, but a funny thing happened when I started sharing them with others - I realized that they aren't just for artists. They're for everyone. These ideas are for everyone who's trying to inject some creativity into their life and their work. (That should describe all of us.)" With that, Austin released his second book Steal Like an Artist, encouraging readers to venture out and create what they are drawn to create.
LESSONS IN CREATIVITY
In Steal Like an Artist, Austin shares ten artistic pointers in hopes of helping others who might be struggling in the creative department.
1) "Don't wait until you know who you are to get started. The way you figure yourself out is by making things."
2) "Write the book you want to read. Don't screw around writing work to please your teachers or agents or literary journals. Think about the books you love, and mash them up into something of your own. Think about the writers you love, and pick up the torch from them."
3) "Do good work and put it where people can see it. That's the only real secret. The internet is the major medium of our time, so don't ignore it, embrace it."
4) "Use your hands. Your hands are the original digital devices. After all, art that comes from the head isn't any good. Watch a great musician play a show. Watch a great leader give a speech. You'll see what I mean."
5) "Side projects and hobbies are important. Take time to mess around. Get lost. Wander. You never know where it is going to leave you."
6) "Do good work and share it with people. There are no shortcuts. Make stuff every day. Know you're going to get stuck once in a while. Fail. Get better. And, just put your stuff on the internet."
7) "Geography is no longer our master. You don't have to live anywhere other than the place you are to start connecting with the world you want to be in. If you feel stuck somewhere, if you're too young or too old, or too broke, or if you're somehow tied down to a place, take heart. There's a community of people out there you can connect with."
8) "Be nice - the world is a small town. Make friends, ignore enemies. And remember, 'Garbage in, garbage out.' You're only going to be as good as the people you surround yourself with."
9) "Be boring. It's the only way to get work done. Get a day job, find a regular hour or two a day to write, take care of yourself, and be a good friend."
10) "Creativity is subtraction. The idea that you can do anything is absolutely terrifying. The way to get over creative block is to simply place some constraints on yourself. It seems contradictory, but when it comes to creative work, limitations mean freedom."
HOW TO "STEAL" WHAT YOU WANT
In defining the word "steal," Austin pointed out that, "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 issue, however, with most artists today is that they are afraid to share. "I think," Austin described, "A lot of artists consider themselves to be magicians - they believe that if they share their secrets, no one will want to see them. But I've found that the more open they are about their processes, the more interesting others find them and the more fans want to follow their work. So that's the approach I've taken with my fans and my followers...Personally, I take so much inspiration from artists who are transparent about their process...Art isn't something you pull out of thin air. There's always the somewhat mystical element to the creative process. For me, I don't know where any of my ideas are from; all I can tell you is the process I use to let those ideas come. My idea of a perfect world would be where everyone makes their own art, where they wouldn't need me. Everyone would be making great stuff all the time. I might be out of a job, but it'd be a pretty great place."
In the end, it is very simple - just create what you are driven to create. That's all it took for Austin, and he urges readers to do the very same. "Draw the art you want to see, start the business you want to run, play the music you want to hear, write the books you want to read, build the products you want to use-do the work you want to see done."