ART THROUGH HEART.
-Aarya Kalyankar
FY BSc (2023-27)
Estimated Reading Time: 6.5 minutes
I have been trying to figure out how to create art for almost over half a decade. Ironically, I realised that you don’t need to be an artist to create or pursue art. It is something we all do : injecting creativity, or thinking out of the box (whatever you would want to call it), into our work and our life.
In other words this article is for you
….whoever you are and whatever you are trying to make out of your life.
Let’s get started…
I have always been wondering: how do artists get their ideas?-
Then I figured out that they were stealing it. Even more when Picasso said “ Art is Theft ” – Thereby an artist needs to be a better ‘stealer’ of things and not a creator. What follows is that you stop looking at the world as good or bad; it’s either worth stealing or not. The writer Jonathan Lethem said ‘Nothing is Original’; when people call something original, 9/10 times they just don’t know the original sources involved. It’s right there in the Bible: “ There is nothing new under the Sun”. This idea might be depressing to some but it fills me with hope, because now that we are free from the burden of creating something completely original, we can stop trying to make something out of nothing.
What is Originality then ?-“ Originality is undetected plagiarism”- I completely agree with William Ralph Inge when he said this. A good sign for us is we are humans, and the beauty of it is that ‘no one hand can draw the same star again’. Even though the idea of drawing the star is stolen from someone we cannot copy paste the same piece of star and that enables your work to be different from where you have stolen it. Your job is to collect good ideas, the more, the better influence your art holds. Select the stuff that directly speaks to your soul and ensure you only choose things that resonate. Do not be a hoarder please, but start copying. Nobody just out of the womb knows who they are: we learn by observing and replicating. Always remember, – copying is not copying, it’s reverse engineering.
Immediately a sharp brain would ask “what to copy” –
It’s simple: first, figure out who to copy and second, figure out what to copy. Who to copy is easy (your heroes).What to copy is something that you need to put your heart and brain into, and as I said you need reverse engineer your theft: copy what you like, imitate it, identify what they could have done better and then simply do it .Think of your favourite work , and your creative heroes, What did they miss? What could have been made better? If they were still alive what would they be making today? If all your favourites come together what would they make? – You have your answer: go make that work which they left undiscovered. One of the things I have learnt about stealing is that there is no point stealing the style, instead one must steal the thought behind it. if you mimic just the surface of somebody’s work without understanding where they are coming from, your work ( and you) will merely be a knockoff.
So rule 101: copy your heroes. Even if you don’t get inspired enough, just remember – “we make art because we like art”. The best thing therefore you can do is, do what you like. When we like what we do we are desperate for more so why not capitalise on that?
Also, we just cannot do what we like from our brains, it needs to come out of your heart. Any work/ Art that comes from only the head isn’t any good. If you want your art to speak to the viewer’s soul, it must speak to you before. Only then you are mastering an emotion which you will find deeply embedded in yourself. There is a reason why Art is not a Science- Art is something that comes out from within and science is something that comes in from outside. Art is rooted in the very essence of what it means to be human.
The secret tonic of creativity is distance and difference, and as an artist you must ponder about things that others wouldn’t. Remember creatives are the new oil . If you are worried about your art coming together, don’t forget that what unites your work is the fact you made it, and that is enough. “True creative liberty is achieved when you realise that their rules don’t apply to you or at least you choose to believe so”.Take more work than what you can do. That’s actually the good stuff and that’s when the magic happens. It’s good to have a lot of things on your plate so you can bounce between them. Practise productive procrastination.
One of my favourite quotes by Steve Jobs: “ You can’t connect your dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backward.” That’s why don’t throw yourself away, give you and your art time let the magic happen. One day you will look back and say it all made sense.
One more way you can achieve this is by speaking about your ideas; the audience is the best gift an artist would get. Especially if you are in your school/college, the classroom is a wonderful place: your professor gets paid to pay attention to your ideas, and your classmates are paying to pay attention to your ideas: never again you will have such a captive audience. Soon after, you’ll learn that most of the world doesn’t really care what you think. That is actually a good thing because you want attention only when you’re successful, being unknown means being under no pressure. Experiment. There is nothing to get distracted from; No public image to manage. You’ll never get that freedom back again. “Enjoy your obscurity while it lasts. Use it” (Austin Kleon)
Another thing which will bother you is validation: the best way to get it, is to not need it. Showcase your work without expecting anything in return. The trouble with creative work is by the time people catch on to what’s valuable about what you do, you are either a) bored with that work, or b) dead. As soon as you show that you’re looking for validation, you’ll no longer have control over your audience. Ironically, good work often looks effortless. People will say; Why didn’t I think of that? They won’t see your sweat and your tears behind it. Get comfortable with getting misunderstood- the trick is to immerse yourself in your work. Yes, life is a lonely business, often filled with discouragement and rejection and validation is for parking, but it’s still a tremendous boost when people say nice things about our work. The key is that we don’t make this validation our motive or reason to do what we do
“MODERN ART = I COULD DO THAT + YEAH, BUT YOU DIDN’T” – Craig Damrauer.
Whenever I read this, I’m reminded about the canvas of opportunities I couldn’t seize upon. Don’t let this happen to your art..One of my favourite lines from Neil Young, a Canadian musician is “It’s better to burn out than to fade away”. Don’t worry about earning money from your work, just make sure that it speaks for itself. it’s never about the money you earn, it’s always about the money you hold on to. This is what my mother has taught me.
To conclude, just remember you are a collector, choose what speaks to your soul, and then let your soul speak to others. You need to learn the art of connecting your art through the heart. And of-course you don’t need to be a better artist to be a better artist. You need to be a better human. Once you do this, creating art is simple.
Write the book you want to read, draw the painting you want to see, play the music you want to hear, build a business you want to run. – do the work you want to see done.
‘Disclaimer: The preceding text was not an original creation but rather a skillful assembly of floating thoughts and expressions.