Inspiration...

As artistic people, we are continuely noticing the world that surrounds us. From culture in the cities to nature in the countryside, it is all in some way inspiring to our own thoughts  It is everywhere. But what happens when this inspiration isn't so apparent to us? In order to continue on our creative journeys we need to create our own inspiration by researching, recording and experimenting. 
It has been proved that surrounding ourselves with pieces of work that inspire us as individuals does in fact stimulate our minds to create our own work based on these ideas. Observing and evaluating other artist's technique and work is important as an individual. It could be said that we almost grab this inspiration from other's work and run away with it, to create our own individual and unique perspective on things. 
It is essential that we record such inspiration in several different forms, such as photographing, sketching, collaging, and collecting. As a photography student, I am constantly searching for new photographers and movements that can push and motivate me to create my own work. To the right is some photographic work of Robert Maplethorpe's. I find this individually inspiring for many reasons, one being the style of the photographs, he has a 'fine art'/documentary approach to his work which is one of my particular favourites in photography. However it could be said that Maplethorpe's work is also documenting on some serious issues for example, the top picture is tackling the diversity between the black and white race. I also find the black and white monochrome inspiring in any photograph, particularly Maplethorpe's as it emphasises the dramatic sense in any image. 
As previously mentioned, 'collecting' is a great way to find inspiration. We as artist people find ourselves surrounding our workspaces, bedrooms, bathrooms, with all sorts of pieces of work. Doing so gives us that push and drive that is ultimately needed to become successful. Collect everything that could become useful; a piece of work may not seem apparent to us at the time but it can be inspiring in different projects in the future.  Without other peoples work as inspiration, we cannot develop our own.
For my first project in Visual Communication I have to contribute to making a magazine about Birmingham. As a starting point for this, and because I wasn't to aware of Birmingham's surroundings, I simply went around Birmingham taking images of objects and people that inspired me and gave me ideas for a magazine subject. 

To the left are some of the images I took. These images are very factual and 'tourist' looking, and gave me the inspiration for many ideas. One main idea was to do a factual magazine of Birmingham but with a twist to it, and this has now become our magazine project. I took many images when starting my project and each image gave me inspiration and motivation for several different ideas. This proves that when you need inspiration because it is not so apparent  you have to get out there and find it yourselves. 

The Notions of Originality & Pastiche, Synchronicity or Conceptual Appropriation...

"Nothing is Original, So Steal Everything". In today's society, it is almost impossible to say that a piece of art is original. Thousands of years of amazing art and design still lives on in today's culture, and without us even knowing so, we are affected by such things. So this poses the all important question, is there such a thing as 'originality'?. It is extremely difficult to be 100% original in your ideas and processing, artistic and creative people are naturally inspired by other's work and are always looking for inspiration. 

Gabrielle d'Estrées
This piece of art by an unknown artist was originally painted in 1594. the intention for this painting was for personal use of the king, the subject being his two mistresses and both said to be sisters. 
The actual form and composition of this painting is obviously quite striking, and for that reason has been mimicked throughout decades. 

As we see in the two images to the right, this striking pose has been 'copied' to make new creative pieces of work. Yes, these artworks aren't original, but they have something different to what the original painting had, a different message. The artists have used the original as a base for their creativity, and simply added their own ideas and skills to creative, what some would say, a whole, different, original piece of work. What sets these apart from the original is the intention behind it and the message it is portraying. 
The bottom image is a 1998 YSL campaign. The obvious intention is to sell, and this pose was chosen because of the striking, bold sense it gives. The actual photograph itself is very high fashion, vintage and appealing to buyers. The actual meaning of the use of this pose could be varied. One opinion could be that the woman is the more dominant and importantly, clothed character in the shot rather than the naked male; which could be portraying the idea of female independence.
Every artist wants to be original and unique in order to succeed. What some people aren't aware of is it is the inspiration of other art, designs, photographs that we study and come across in our day to day life's that actually give us that inspiration and creativity we need to produce work. An artist may use someone's technique, context, form, composition, subject etc.  It is ok to 'copy' and 'steal', as long as you use other's work as a basis for your own. We should take risks, challenge, and play with other's ideas to improve and do something original in today's society.


Pastiche can be said to be another form of 'copying' in the creative world. Yet what differs in this term is that the work is purposely imitated in order to create a new take on the work. Sometimes a piece of art is described as a 'pastiche' because of the combination of several pieces of art to creative a new one, also known as a 'hodge-podge'. 

A very obvious form of pastiche art is collage work in which artists can combine different pieces of art forms to their very own original peice. 
















http://blog.basekit.com/2010/09/15/nothing-is-original-so-steal-everything/
http://www.louvre.fr/llv/commun/home.jsp?bmLocale=en

Overcoming Mindsets...

We have to think outside the box in order to be original. Sometimes we need to deliberately think of ideas not actually linked to our projects, allowing us to think of new possibilities and approach our work from a different angle. If an artist approached their work in a similar way every time they started a new project, they would start to produce similar work also; this is known as habitual thinking. It is easy for a person to become stuck in this mindset, it is a safe way of producing average, predictable work that can be seen as restricting the artist's true capabilities. It is overcoming these mindsets that is the key to breaking out of such a mindset. An artist should challenge and take risk's in their work, and free themselves from assumptions. conventions and predictions. In order to free yourself from habitual thinking, we need to break our own rules. 

A perfect example of such an artist is the illustrator Nick Dewer. 

His humorous and almost ironic pieces of art are original, innovating and inspiring. He has clearly sat back and reviewed his options on how to make his work more interesting, and challenged the rules and regulations of art in today's society. By breaking such rules he has also free himself from conventions, assumptions, and developed a refreshing and creative way of looking at work with a new attitude. 

A part of overcoming ones mindset is sometimes about breaking rules and pushing boundaries, not just are own but social and moral boundaries. Pieces of work that do such things attract and crave attention. Controversial as they can be, work like this remains in everyone's mind. A prime example of an artist that takes risks is Francis Bacon. His painting of the 'screaming pope' as it is famously known has become a very controversial, religious topic still to this present day. Not only has he took a risk in the medium and style of the painting, he has took risk in what the painting means and the religious topic it is tackling. Because of this, it has become one of his most famous pieces of art. Standing out  is not such a bad thing.



Since studying Visual Communication I have myself tried to overcoming mindsets that I have developed throughout my education and tried to overcome my own assumptions and make that essential jump to a university standard of work. I like to use specific techniques to try and improve  my way of thinking; for example I like use mind maps. In doing so I reflect on my ideas already, which the majority of will be predictable  assumptions, and actually contract these ideas and use juxtapositions. Say I was to create an image of a dog playing with a ball, I would reverse these roles and have the ball playing with the dog. I also use this technique in my speciality, photography. I like to break the rules of photography, using interesting vantage points, breaking 'the rule of thirds' and taking risks on how my subject matter is perceived to an audience. 

Managing a creative environment..

An artist's workspace or studio is somewhat of a 'safe haven' to them. It is a place that is full of inspiration to that individual, with minimal distractions and the artist is free to experiment and test their own abilities; Both failure and achievements are welcomed and accepted. 

The workspace should be stimulating to a persons mind, in that they can develop and and broaden their minds. Every creative environment is individual, whether it be a hired studio, a cramped office space or even a bedroom, it has to suit the artist's specific needs. It could be said that creating and maintaining such a workspace is a piece of art in itself. 

This seems to be the case for one artist's studio; Banksy. 

In the picture to the right we see the famous artist's studio, which could be said to be more like an exhibition! Rather than be practical, his creative workspace is more of an inspirational environment in which he could possibly reflect and analyse his skill and abilities. These sources of stimulus could also be seen as a form of 'collecting' in which he uses his own work to use as reflection and inspiration. This could be considered quite 'messy' to some people, but as said previously, this is only important to the actual artist. 

Very much in contrast to this, the image to the left is very spacious, open, and free; there is a sense of 'feng sui' to the room giving it a very calm impression. Some artists feel the need have such an environment. Keeping calm and collective can be helpful in concentration, there are no distractions from other people, places, and you are able to find everything when it is needed. As previously said, every workspace depends on the artist and what inspires them to be their best. 


In my creative environment at university, I show forms of 'collecting'. I like to surround myself with inspiration, from pieces of art I find at random to pieces from my favourite photographers and artists. Listening to music also keeps me calm and strangely concentrated as most people find it a distraction. I also like to include work of my own, such as fine art drawings, photographs, quick sketches and paintings. I find when I surround myself with this they keep me motivated and remind myself of my potential to be more creative and what I have already done. 

Reflection...

Practice makes perfect, as does reflective thinking on a piece of work. Sitting back and analysing our work allows us too be our own critic, there is always something to improve. It allows us to engage, evaluate and compare are visual thoughts to previous ones. Of course visual language plays a massive part in being reflective, it is essential that an artist makes as many sketches as possible in order to improve. The most successful outcomes will be achieved if annotation is added to such sketches. In the image to the right, we see an art student's sketchbook. She has made quick, rough sketches, allowing her time to create more, and has clearly annotated and highlighted aspects of the sketch which she can improve on, change, and challenge. Annotating work also allows a person to describe a certain factor of their work that cannot be said visually, known as textual language. It may seem strange to some people to criticise your own work, but it allows an artist or designer to question and push their own skills to the highest they can be. Annotations are much more important than thoughts in your head because they can be referred back to, you can be reminded of what you want your main outcome to be. 



In order for our reflection to be recognized clearly, our annotations should be clear, well presented and straight to the point. an examiner is not going to spend more time than he or she needs to reading our mountains of annotations. Sometimes, more detail is needed for us to explain something, but most of the time we need to make clear what the main aim, problem or achievement is within our RVJ's. We need to engage a reader, use text visually and keep it legible to read. To the left I have shown examples of how this works.  The first RVJ is extremely crammed and cluttered, something that a reader will automatically avoid. There is no clear indication of what the purpose of the two pages were for, the only way we would find out is to read the whole thing. The second RVJ is a much better example. Sure, its simple, but it gets straight to the point. The student has used the technique of a 'spider web diagram' to show the reader his main aims, worries and success's. It is legible, therefore it more appealing to the eye. 
Even as a photography student, reflecting back on sketches and annotation are still essential to my progress. If I can imagine what I want to capture, but have not yet found it, I can make a quick sketch of what I want to achieve and refer back to it at a later date. I can also note down composition, the depth of the image I want to create, and possibly make annotations of what I want my main outcome to be so this can be reflected on. Also, when I have taken my images, I always need to annotate why I did such things and why they worked or didn't. 

Utilising your brain..

According to scientists, our brains have two sides that both individually control how we think and feel about things; the left and the right. In terms of Visual Communication, our playful right side allows us to explore are artistic possibilities, allowing our ideas to grow and emerge. It is the home of our imagination, allowing our sometimes 'crazy' ideas to carelessly run free. That is until our rational and fact orientated left side of our brain's captures them thoughts and organises them to make a solution and a final idea to our several thoughts; a 'general intention'. So, left is right, right? wrong. It is the amazing combination and collision of both sides of our brains that is right. It is perhaps the general awareness of this fact in society that allows the Visual Communication in the world to be as amazing and daring as it is. Artists now approach their work with a conscious awareness of which side is working and the knowledge to keep a balance between the two. This is the intention of this awareness. 

So, everybody knows they have a left and right side of their brain, it is pretty basic knowledge. It is only the handful of people in a crowd that actually have the awareness of what such sides do. Of course, such knowledge is extremely useful to an aspiring creative student for example, it allows us to evaluate the work we are producing more efficiently. But what if the knowledge of such parts of our brain actually prohibits us from achieving our goals? We now know that the left side eventually has to evaluate, challenge and question our thoughts in our right side, it could be said that such knowledge actually limits our creativity because we now know the majority of our 'playing around' will not approved of by our left side! This statement could also be reversed, in that we now know that it is acceptable to play around and make mistakes in our work, what if our right side acknowledges that and produces useless work? As said before, people need to find their own personal balance in the two, very much a 'Yin and Yang' sense. We need the two to work in harmony and utilise if we are to achieve our greatest potentials. 
A great way to utilise our brains is to somehow project our many ideas and thoughts with our right brains, and let our left brain evaluate and question such ideas. The main way in doing so, in terms of Visual Communication, is an Reflective Visual Journey (RVJ). Here we are allowed to free the right side of our brains; we can experiment, make mistakes and challenge ourselves. Of course this is all very well and good, but again we need our left side of the brain to put us back in order.
To the left is an example of an RVJ. We see the person has made several experimental sketches in different mediums. More importantly we see that this person's left side of their brain has included annotations. This is extremely important for any creative person, it allows us to evaluate which experiments were successful, which were unsuccessful and why, and most importantly; allows us to progress. This is again another great example of how the left side and the right side need each other. Without the right, the left couldn't organise or evaluate anything. But without the left, the right would loose itself in its own imagination!