My friend, Brian, recently recommended a website, Brain Pickings, from writer Maria Popova. It is self-described on the site as: … a human-powered discovery engine for interestingness, culling and curating cross-disciplinary curiosity-quenchers, and separating the signal from the noise to bring you things you didn’t know you were interested in until you are. It is a great place to find the new and interesting, books and things that may have slipped past you in the torrent of information that bombards us.
On my first visit, I was immediately hooked when I came across a book there called Steal Like An Artist from author/artist Austin Kleon. Calling it a manifesto for creativity in the digital age, Kleon started this project when he was asked to speak at a community college in upstate NY. While preparing for his talk, Kleon came up with a list of 10 things he wished he had heard when he was starting out. As shown above, number 1 was Steal like an artist.
Like Kleon, I have prepped myself to speak with community college students, wanting to somehow pass something on that would help them get past some of the unnecessary hurdles they are sure to face. Some words that might allow them to focus more on the things that really matter to their creative growth. My list was not nearly so succinct and to the point as Kleon’s. When I saw his list, I knew that we were on the same wavelength. Every item jibed perfectly with what I wished to pass on.
One of his charts deals beautifully with the steal like an artist aspect of the book, that taking in and synthesizing of our influences process that I have written about here. I have always maintained that we are all products of our influences, that creativity is our ability to add our personal voice to the existing chorus and make it sound new. We might like to claim that our work is absolutely original but we all know deep down that we are simply borrowing and adding or subtracting to make it our own. His chart, shown here, differentiates between good and bad theft. I think I have been a good thief when borrowing from my influences and my own work has been the subject of both sides of this chart, good and bad. Believe me, I don’t mind the good thief but the bad thief just saddens me more than it infuriates.
So, for anyone with creative aspirations of any sort, not simply artistic ( and I believe that to be most of us), this is a book to be considered. It looks highly entertaining and I know I’m looking forward to the copy I have coming. Thanks, Brian, for the heads-up on BrainPickings and thanks to Maria Popova for the heads-up on this book.
Redtree Times 
Personally, I don’t like any thieves, and I’m not too keen on a book that suggests it’s ok to steal from others. I understand there’s some tongue-in-cheek going on here, and some very fine distinctions being made, but I still think “good theft” is an oxymoron.
Of course, I’ve had the experience of finding my words posted with someone else’s name on them. It’s a shock at first, and never pleasant, even retrospectively.
I take his point about pure originality being an unrealistic claim, and happen to agree. But gosh – I do hate that language. “Steal from many”? Even surrounded by “study” and “credit”, that just grates.
Perhaps “thief” is a stronger word than needed but I think it serves its purpose here, as far as using influences, especially in the beginning stages of finding one’s own voice. Van Gogh, for instance, was “good thief”, attributing Millet with his Sower paintings that were almost copies. But he took what he learned from that theft and began to transform it into a quality that was his own in subsequent paintings.
When I speak to young painters, I urge them to “borrow” freely from the artists they admire but to not simply copy. Maybe “borrow” is the preferred terminology?
You know, I was thinking more about this, and I suspect that context counts. It’s so much easier for photographers and writers to have stuff “lifted” whole – maybe we’re a bit touchier about the whole thing.
If I were a painter, I don’t think I’d have responded so quickly and strongly.
[…] wrote here on the blog a couple of years back about Austin Kleon and his book, Steal Like an Artist. It is a book that I […]