#insperatinal

And it’s not them

It’s just how it’s been

Using what you have

Art can sometimes come off as pretentious and showy with large installations and canvases the size of walls. People often think that in order to be a good artist you have to have the highest quality of paint, brushes, and other materials, but that isn't necessarily true. While it might aid in the creation process to have high quality materials, it is not essential. This carries over to subject matter for artworks as well. While you might not be in Paris, France sketching the Eifel Tower, there are many other things in your vicinity that you can sketch The world around us has a vast amount of synthetic and organic inspiration that can be utilized at any time.

An artist that displays the true organic creation of art is Andy Goldsworthy who is a sculptor from the UK. Goldsworthy uses the nature around him to create temporary art pieces that decompose over time. Some of his works include fallen leaves, rocks, sticks, stones, and even the manipulation of ice. If you have the chance I would suggest watching Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working with the Time. It is a 1hr 34min long documentary on Andy Goldsworthy and his art and I think about it a lot. Excuse my photo dump, but here are some of his artworks that are stunning.

^^^ THIS IS ICE!! ^^^

Seeing the Possibilities

There are many ways to utilize the space around you and use objects that are readily obtainable to create art. The earth is very organic by nature and also geometric by nature. There are plants that grow geometrically and look very similar one plant to the next. It can also be found in beehives with the hexagonal honeycombs that the animals create. The way people cut grass in an back and fourth fashion and even the way houses are built along streets all follow some sort of geometric pattern.

Organically speaking, the earth also grows and creates based on the recourses available and the treatment it faces day-to-day. Trees are a great example of this, because they grow according to how much light and water they receive, as well as soil and air quality. Reefs are similar and grow depending in the conditions they are in.

Utilizing nature and man-made patters, or lack there of, can be a great source of inspiration and ideation for artwork. Speaking of using what you have, I would like to introduce still life artwork. In my experience, still life has a bit of a bad wrap to it, and its understandable to see why. They have this sort of stereotype to them where you have to paint bowls of fruit and glassware perfectly. This used to be the case because it helped with learning techniques of painting. The citrus peels were for the artists to display their upmost talent in painting because peels are hard to paint. That being the case, if you don't want to paint fruit and glass then use every day items! I'm talking like your favorite plushy, a tennis racket, a funko pop, an old flip phone, and maybe even your furry friend - if they will sit still for a period of time - and put all the items in front of you. You can either lay them out in a line or build them up like a triangle and go crazy! There are a large amount of textures that can be found using these everyday items that are often overlooked.

Tip of the Post

One way to spark creativity is to draw random everyday items. My friend recently sent a page of their sketchbook to me, and I though that the idea was so big brained that I would like to share it with you. They took a random object generator and for every object they got they drew a thumbnail of it on the sheet of paper. They continued to do this until the entire paper was filled and it created an amazing piece of artwork in the end.

Burnout

We live.

We make mistakes.

We learn.