Steal Like an Artist

This week, I'm allowing Arthur Kleon, artist and writer, to hold court on my blog.

Austin Kleon is a writer, artist, speaker, and New York Times best-selling author. He’s written two books: Steal Like An Artist, an illustrated manifesto for creativity in the digital age, and Newspaper Blackout, a collection of poetry made by redacting newspaper articles with a permanent marker. 

I came across Austin just this week, after one of my subscribers commented that my current obsession, The Sunrise Project, reminded her of a photographer she knows who takes a photo of the sunrise for clients celebrating a special day. I began considering how artists share ideas.

Arthur's video sparked a lively discussion in my Drawing I class at Florida State College. My students were excited to be given permission to reach for the things that they're passionate about and link them to the work of other artists in a way that honors both the passion and the artist.

The students brainstormed the things that they love - music and dance -  beginning to see how they could incorporate those passions into their artwork. For artists just starting out, this is heady stuff!

"Bad artists copy. Good artists steal"

Stealing ideas from one other is a great way to

learn and grow. We are inspired and allow that spark of inspiration to ignite a new way of thinking and creating our own work.

We transform what we appropriated with our personality and point of view and we are transformed in the process.

 Perhaps our work will then inspire someone to steal from us.

This is why I take students to visit museums and galleries to study the art and artists that came before us. We don't learn in a vacuum, people. (Oops, that was my art teacher voice coming out.)

How amazing is this? 

We have the opportunity to pick only the best from all the things offered to us in this magnificent life. We are free to select the world's greatest artists, writers, musicians and thinkers as our teachers.

Who have you stolen from lately? How have you transformed what you took? How has it transformed you?

Early Morning Skies

 Greetings fellow art lovers who live under the sky.

Of all the habits that I nurture - the good ones and the not-so-good, 

Getting Up at 6 am to Paint the Sky 
is my current favorite.

I admit that each morning when my phone alarm starts its insistent chirping in the dark, I reconsider my decision, but I get up anyway because a week of painting just 30 minutes each morning has taught me so much.


I've learned that creativity doesn't require gobs of time! Painting the sky as it brightens up to create the day is a self-limiting endeavor.

At 6 am it's still dark. By 7 am the show is over and I'm done!


I learned that painting is what I'm here to do. Every cell in my body does a happy dance while the sky puts on a show, taunting me to paint faster - that cloud won't be there in a few seconds and that rosy orange will turn to aquamarine.

 I've learned to paint fast and in the dark. 


I've learned an easy way to practice what I preach - that to nurture your creativity, you must create something every day.


They say a habit, good or bad, takes about 21 days to form. I'm looking forward to the next 14 days, and I don't want to miss the show.