Build Off Your Influences

All artists have influences. Nothing is new under the sun and all that. Everything they experience will influence them in one way or another.

Art is the synthesis of life in materialized form." -Alvar Aalto (Architect)

An excellent BBC sitcom called Red Dwarf is about the ragged crew of a deep space mining vessel, aimlessly wandering the universe. In one episode, "Legion," a highly intelligent being, defines itself by the sum of consciousnesses in its field. If only one consciousness is available, then the being manifests itself as an exact original copy.

My notes from the classes I took at SVS Learn state, "your style is the sum of your influences."

​Just like Legion, the larger your pool of influences is, the greater your originality and variety. So I think it is helpful to recognize and identify them. Then build off them.

"What a good artist understands is that nothing comes from nowhere. All creative work builds on what came before. Nothing is completely original." -Austin Kleon (Writer and Artist)

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xx Cory

This post was proofread by Grammarly