Pablo Picasso once said, "Art is theft."
Recently, my friend Sikiru has been urging me to release a body of work, so I promised him that I would create three incredible paintings before starting on a painting series close to my heart. But how do I come up with ideas for those three paintings? The honest answer is that I am going to steal them, but in an ethical way, from one of my favorite artists, Daniel Arsham.
I discovered Daniel while binge-watching a YouTube series called "Blueprint" from "The Complex" YouTube channel. I was immediately hooked on his works and started searching for more of his art on Instagram. The piece I am currently working on for the three-painting series is titled "Couple."
Creators often romanticize being original, but the truth is that to create is always to do something new by borrowing characteristics from the pieces we know. There is nothing wrong with that. As humans, we cannot make anything out of nothing. Our creative imaginations must have something to work on. We do not form new ideas out of thin air.
While many people focus on "what is" and "how is," the real question is "why is." That's why I named this newsletter "Collage." As an artist, I am a collector. But not a hoarder. I only collect things that I love. The more good creative ideas I collect in my archive, the more I can choose from to be influenced by. Even though I am stealing Daniel's art style, I am merely borrowing a few components that can tell the story I intend better. We would still listen to our best friends share their perspectives and experiences on the story told before by someone else. People interpret things differently.
I steal inspiration from anywhere that resonates with me or fuels my imagination. I stole vintage gadget ideas from old films, fashion inspiration from new Korean films, ideas from the lyrics of NF's music, non-fiction books, paintings on Instagram, photographs on apps like X, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, nature, earth, bodies of water, light, and shadows. I collect things that speak directly to my soul and rearrange the "thefts" like a puzzle to create something authentic.
Speaking of theft, I'll share my creative process of hoodie ideas that I stole from the "Into the Spiderverse" film and the artist Keith Haring in the next Collage newsletter issue.