Art Is Theft – Entry 1

I’ve been vlogging a lot lately. I got inspired by a guy name Casey Neistat. He was the first vlogger I watched that I didn’t get bored by (most of them are just people talking to their camera for 15 minutes). He made his vlogs pretty cinematic (like here and here). I’ve always been one who video taped the things going on around me, especially in college, but I didn’t make nearly as many movies out of those videos as I had hoped. Seeing his vlog though sparked some ideas on how to creatively share stories of everyday life.

A comment was left on a video about how I was copying Neistat’s style. I thought about it for a little bit. I have definitely been studying his style and using some of the same techniques. They’re engaging and interesting ways to tell a story. Art is such a space where imitation is pretty frowned upon. Then I thought about how as a teacher, you’re always encouraged to steal great ideas and transform them into something that makes sense for you. Why reinvent the wheel?

I started wondering about the line between inspiration and imitation. I asked one of the most creative people I know about it. He responded:

The only thing that separates ripping off someone and being inspired by them is honesty.

I went to a bookstore with Sara tonight and found a book whose basic premise was that all art is just a stealing of ideas. In the cover there’s the Picasso quote above as well as the following by T.S. Elliot :

The book also had this awesome T-chart showing the difference between good theft and bad theft:

I didn’t buy the book, but instead I got a little journal that runs compliment to it. It was sort of embarrassing because it’s sort of like those ‘Wreck This Journal‘ type books that’s marketed to tweens. It’s really just a journal full of exercises to spark creativity. I plan on sharing quite a few as I do them.

Here was the first.

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