Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative

Content Warning: This section discusses drug use and mental health.

Art is a changeable and flexible expression of human culture and its definition varies across time, geography, and traditions. In the Western critical tradition, art has often been defined quite narrowly and could be confined to “high” art, practiced by professionals and, usually, the highly trained and educated. Over the course of the 20^th and 21^st centuries, the concept has increasingly broadened in popular consciousness to mean the “creative expression of our thoughts, emotions, intuitions, and desires” (Nieters, Joseph. “What Is Art? And/or What Is Beauty?” Philosophy Now, 2015). Austin Kleon’s book draws on this expansive definition of art and encompasses all kinds of creators, types of practice (music, visual art, physical art, and literature), and even creative thought processes. In challenging rigid and narrow definitions of art and the artist, Kleon shows himself to be part of this contemporary trend to broaden and democratize art.

Archaeological evidence shows that visual art has been part of human culture for at least 45 millennia. Because material evidence of art forms such as (vocal) music, dance, spoken poetry, and storytelling tends not to survive, it is hard to know how far back artistic expression goes. Some experts believe that mankind’s hominin (pre-human) ancestors had the cognitive capacity for artistic expression two million years ago. Whatever the precise date, the heritage and continuation of art shows that it is a deeply innate and strong human urge that has long provided benefits to human culture and society, outside the necessities of immediate survival. In the Bronze Age (c. 3,000-1,000 BCE), developing technology allowed art to evolve. The potter’s wheel developed during this time, and the earliest pyramids and hieroglyphics were made. Beautiful, skillfully crafted artifacts such as sculptures, ceramics, jewelry, textiles, architecture and metalwork survive from this time. These objects attest to the significance of art in society, serving as expressions of universal human experiences while also being linked to community beliefs and practices. Simultaneously, they serve as markers of divisions in status and wealth.

The technology of writing, communication, and dissemination are key to Kleon’s exploration of art in the modern world. Although digitization is a modern phenomenon, the relationship between literature and technology is age-old. The development of writing and methods of transmission (paper, papyrus, stone and clay tablets) first happened around 5,500 years ago and were used for administration and communication. As writing became more sophisticated, it began to be used as a way to record and transmit literature, which was already an established oral tradition of art. Oral and written literature continued alongside each other for millennia. The oldest surviving written literature is from Bronze-Age texts: The oldest extant hymn and wisdom literature are the Sumerian Kesh Temple Hymn and the Instructions of Shuruppak from 2600 BCE, while the earliest evidence of written fiction is the Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh, dated to between 2100 and 1200 BCE. Through the Classical and Medieval periods, literature continued to be written by hand and copied as a means to reach readers, who were in an elite minority. These manuscripts were often status objects and combined forms of visual and artisanal art. The printing press was invented in the 1430s and technological advances in printing through Renaissance Europe drove the production and accessibility of written literature. The digital and communication revolution that gained pace in 21st century has again altered the nature, speed, and accessibility of written culture. In examining how the digital technology of the 21st century has affected artistic practice, Kleon has become part of a the tradition of thinkers who have examined the relationship between technology and art in terms of methods, concepts, and audience.

Technology facilitated the rise of professional authorship and the linking of specific works to named authors: This idea of “ownership” is critical to Kleon’s premise of “stealing.” The role of artists and creatives in western societies has drastically altered through the centuries. Increasing globalization, communication, industrialization, and technological innovation through Renaissance, Early Modern, and Modern periods gradually changed the role of the professional artist from an employee retained by a wealthy patron to an independent practitioner expressing their own creative impulses and finding new audiences. Improvements to the global quality of life, advances in education, and increased leisure time also made art accessible to the wider population, whether as creators or consumers. Art has continued to morph in form and definition through subsequent geographical and temporal settings. Twentieth-century artistic movements such as conceptualism, pop art, minimalism, and absurdism used visual art—one of the most traditional and “highest” artistic mediums—to question the very nature of what constitutes art. Kleon’s book encourages readers to consider their creative practice regardless of whether they are traditional artists. In his foreword he states that, while he was creating his advice, he realized his “ideas apply to anyone who’s trying to inject some creativity into their life and work. (That should describe all of us.)” (1). Thus, all interested readers become the aspiring artist or creative that Kleon’s book addresses.