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John Opie was once known to have said,”Art is more godlike than science. Science discovers but art Creates.” This quote tries to answer the question that most artists are asked. What is it that gives them their inspiration? Sometimes we can easily see what the inspiration is. Sometimes the answer is as simple as the people and situations that surround the artist become his inspiration.  But other times we don’t really know how the artist got his idea.

Most artists use people, surroundings, and areas they are familiar with, even for works that are abstract, or ar fantasy art. Sometimes the people in an art work are even a composite of many different people. Some artists are inspired by their dreams and even their life goals, that’s why I say that each piece is a part of the soul of the artist. So to really understand what inspires the artist, you need to know about the artist, his history and what interests him as a person.

It is really difficult to understand what inspires creativity, and that may be what makes it so interesting. Artists use many things to inspire the, a conversation, another piece of art, nature, and many different things.

Photo: Courtesy of Stephenpoff

Out of the dark we came, into the dark we go. Like a storm driven bird at night we fly out of nowhere: For a moment our wings are seen in the light of the fire, and lo! We are gone again into nowhere - Quoted from King Solomon’s mines.

When exploring what inspires artist, I came across a very short movement that lasted for about 20 years. This movement was the metaphysical art movement of which Giorgio Chirico was considered the father. This painter born in the later part of the 1800’s who died in 1978, was  the founder of the metaphysical art movement, but what is more interesting are the concepts that inspired him. Giogio Chirico was not only a great artist, but also someone with a keen interest in philosophy and he metaphysical.

He first studied art in Italy, but for a time he moved to Germany, and while studying art there he read works by philosophers, Nietzsche, Arthur Schopenhauer, Arnold Bocklin, and Max Klinger. When he returned to Italy, his work began to reflect his religious beliefs. Chirico is best known for putting his poetry into his art work. For a time his metaphysical work was only done with cityscapes but later Chirico began to do his Metaphysical art with humans.

What creates passion in People? Inspiration may create passion or vice versa passion may create inspiration.  At any rate we know that people are inspired to create art and art inspires people to look, listen, and enjoy more art.

For many the enjoyment of art, music, literature, even film is not enough in itself, but they also look for other people that enjoy the same type of art and creation. Although, true that we are each individuals, we are also a whole, and as such we look for people with like interests whether we are artists ourselves, or just enjoy art.

The web has changed the way we enjoy and create art, giving us a medium in which we can either share our creativity with other creative beings or in which we can enjoy the same styles and types of art and talk about it with other people who also like the same things we do, and this creates both a maketing tool for those of us that are creative, a support system for artists, and a way of recommending art to friends and family when we enjoy certain types of art.

Photo: Courtesy of Hieronymus

When talking about what inspires artists, we realize that many have taken their inspiration from previous periods, but, which period influences them all? I was recently able to visit the Roman exhibit that is traveling throughout the United States from the Louvre. As I walked through the exhibit rooms and was awed by such impressive and monumental work, I finally understood why artists from all eras have been influenced by these great works.

If you look at work done during the Renaissance, the Baroque period, the Neoclassical period, the Victorian age, you realized that they have all been influenced by this one great era, the Roman era.

So then the question arises where did the Romans get this great interest or this great artistic influence from? We know that they were fascinated with the human body and worked to portray it with such infinite precision. We know that they studied muscle and bone groups and then used them in art, but where did they get their inspiration to portray such knowledge with such beauty? This may be something we never know.

What I do know is that I walked out of this exhibit with thousands of ideas rolling around in my head. I was truly inspired by the work of these unknown artists and I can truly see why so many artists are influenced by the Classical Roman style. If you have a chance to get to this exhibit, it is truly one you don’t want to miss.

Photo: ArtCulture

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Henry David Thoreau once said,

¨If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.¨

An artist that has truly taken this saying to heart is Peter Eugene Ball. Throughout history artists have been influenced by religion and this is still true today. Let’s take the post modern sculptor Peter Eugene Ball. This artist is inspired by other past religious artists, but he brings modern simplicity to this influence.

Those who see his work notice the timeless quality he gives each of his pieces. He seems to be fascinated by the mysteries of life, and yet easily portrays the human simplicity.

The unique way Ball can express the inspiration he gets from religion, life, and spirituality is portrayed with such simplicity. Often it is nothing but a piece of driftwood that he uses and transforms into a human gesture or face. He is influenced by iconic art, religious art and artists from the medieval times. Ball has done work for many churches within England and you can find works in Westminster, Birmingham and Winchester.

Photo Courtesy of: Zoreil

Contemporary artist seem to be inspired and fascinated by topics and themes that represent the metaphysical.  Ellen Lanyon is one of these artists. Her work fascinates me because she uses so many fantastical images mixed in with realistic ones.  She makes one wonder at the mystery of nature and how we as humans affect our habitat

Lanyon tries to show that all living things are linked together through her work. She advocates the ecological balance of life and expresses it through her painting.  She combines normal things found in nature or in everyday life and combines them with items from junk shops, or taxidermy specimens and combines them all into a fantastic combination, expressing the relationship between man made objects and those objects found in nature. She wants people to understand the magical process that happens once life begins.

Even the titles of her paintings gives you a hint of what she is trying to communicate through her painting. Take the painting ¨Endangered,¨ in it she tries to explain how we shouldn’t allow things that are important to fade in our memory.

“Life is full of dead spots. Art gives it life”

This quote was said by Irwin Edman, a 20th century philosopher. He mentioned that artists have a way of making life come alive and have been able to do so through time. Art history is full of icons of every type and nature. They can come in the form of images of Christ or the Virgin Mary or even an icon like “Campbells Tomato Soup Cans” by Andy Warhol. Icons let us connect with culture, nature, our own humanity, our inner self, and our religion.

When an artist gives meaning to a symbol or an image (an icon) then it acquires a certain value to society and to history and mankind.  To an artist the icons he takes on represent a part of himself or of the world he lives in, just as Jesus was a part of the world El Greco lived in and “Campbells Soup” was an icon of the world of Andy Warhol. What makes an icon up to a society depends on the societies beliefs, their tradition, and what they find value in, and these will differ depending on age group and on country.

Images have had different meanings throughout time.  In any culture images have a certain meaning and they produce certain feelings such as peace, tranquility, and even hope. Throughout history these images have changed and the meaning or feelings those images inspire has also changed.

Let’s take for example the painting of “The Marriage Giovanni Arnolfini and Giovanna Cenami” by Jan van Eyck, which was painted in 1434.  This visual image was well understood in the 15th century, but it is not interpreted similarly today.

At the time, this painting was a type of “wedding certificate.” Their grave faces indicate the responsibility of marriage. The green dress that the bride is wearing indicates fertility, and was the traditional wedding dress color of the time.  She is not pregnant as may be thought in this day and age, but the swelling of her abdomen suggests great female beauty for the 15th century.

The lack of shoes was a religious symbol that indicated the standing on holy ground, and the burning candle symbolizes the presence of Christ. Now unless we knew about these images and what they presented in the 15th century, people would have no idea of what this painting represented in today’s time. The same is probably true, if we took a painting of Andy Warhol’s “Soup can” back to the 15th century. Do you think they would understand that it is a representation of Modern day life.

Marc Shagall was a Russian born French painter (1887-1985), who painted with vivid colors and was influenced by Cubism, Surrealism and Fauvism. He once said:

Art is the unceasing effort to compete with the beauty of flowers and never succeeding.

What the artist is referring to in this quote is the beauty of Nature and how Nature is often a great source of inspiration for artists.  And when you really look at nature and think about it, it really is inspirational. Maybe artists are able to see and express their wonder at nature better than most of the rest of us.

Take a moment, and really look at a tree, a flower or the simplest plant in the world. Don’t think of it’s name, just look at this object in nature as if you had never seen it before. Isn’t it the most amazing thing you have ever seen, and not even the best artist in the world can recreate its magnificence, and yet a very good artist who acquires his inspiration from nature or from just about everything and anything can recreate the feelings we get when we truly look at objects in nature and let ourselves  just FEEL.

We all love music, but some of us more than others, and some of us use music to inspire our lives and in the case of artists, this music inspires them to create their art.

Where do artists get their inspiration from? You might be surprised to learn that they are inspired everyday events, by other art, movies and music. Most artists are very emotional, sensitive people and everything in their environment influences the way they see things. Take the blog The Modern Artist. She expresses the deep emotional feelings she gets when listening to a U2 song.  Angel Turner Dyke is a professional modern artist, who takes images she finds in nature and adds her own feelings, person, and creativity to them. Her work stands out because, she takes what would otherwise be stark images, and creates color within them.  In a way this artist focuses on modern abstract art, and yet her work is not all abstract, but a combination of modern illustration, some abstract, and there are even some hints of impressionism (color) in her work.  You can tell from her work that this artist’s fills her world and her artwork with passion, love and color.