[Today’s featured artwork for Day 37 of the 365 Days Project is by Jason Nelson.]
Creating art isn’t a magic act, it’s a relay race.
#37 – Artists are always standing on the shoulders of those who came before.
As much as we’d like to think inspiration arrives on a lightning bolt, the truth is: artists don’t create anything that’s entirely new.
Nobody does.
Artists are like relay runners. They run as fast and as far as they can, taking their work to the highest level possible within their lifetimes. Then they pass the baton to the next generation of artists who take that work and carry it even further. From Picasso’s paintings to Henry Ford’s Model T, creative invention is built on what came before. Mozart was a genius, but he didn’t discover jazz or rap or rock n’ roll. He worked with the music of his particular era and pushed its boundaries.
That’s how everything in this world is created. This isn’t a magic show. Nothing ever appears out of nowhere, it evolves over time into something new. The only thing we can do as artists is our best work and then pay it forward.
“The really good idea is always traceable back quite a long way, often to a not very good idea which sparked off another idea that was only slightly better, which somebody else misunderstood in such a way that they then said something which was really rather interesting.”
John Cleese
Jason Nelson’s artwork can be viewed at: The Stone Sculptor
Description of the images included in this post:
Tear of the Ice Queen
Jason Nelson, Ontario, Canada
Carrara marble on an alabaster base
Spirit of 67
Jason Nelson, Ontario, Canada
Alabaster with copper on a marble base
The 365 Days Project
In 2012, Serena Kovalosky committed to writing an article a day for 365 days as an exploration into the lives of artists and the value of creative thinking in our society.
Experience the full evolution of the project! Click below to read the entire collection of articles.
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