Appropriation

Appropriation is an involuntary force in the art world. Nothing is ever original, everything has been done before in one way or another. All great works have been inspired by other artists, who have been inspired by other artists, until a daisy chain has been formed and you don't even know what inspired you, it was just embedded deep into your subconscious. By appropriating art (purposeful or not), it pushes you to approach your work with a new eye, and through that new perspective great things can happen that might not have happened with your usual way of thinking. An example of appropriation that ended up forming it's own thing is the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a group of artists who returned to the ways of painting before Raphael and Michelangelo, and ended up forming their own genre in the process. Diane Arbus, Mike-Bailey Gates, and Antonio Ysursa are some artists who I have tried to appropriate in the past, and each time I end up learning how to see in a new way. Sometimes I don't like to acknowledge to myself that I'm appropriating because it makes me feel like I'm not a real artist if I am copying the style of someone else, but it's important to remember that they were likely copying the style of someone else who was copying the style of someone else. Great artists are great for a reason, and appropriating is a way to learn how they are great.

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." -Isaac Newton