External Sourcing: Amy Lu

This week’s reading, about external sourcing of inspiration exposes several artists and their various inspirations through artwork. I personally found this article easier to read, to understand and even on another level, to connect. The external inspirations ranged from African history and the collective conscious, to the aesthetic of the lower class neighborhoods to finding art’s absolute starting point and following turning points. Although there are starts from external inspirations, I still believe that inspiration needs to happen on an internal level as well.

Human beings are constantly being bombarded with information in the forms of sights, sounds, smells and taste – each little detail can be a source of external inspiration. But, what pushes artists to be inspired by any one detail? This can only be from an internal perspective. For William Kentridge, the internal inspiration came from his own emotional distress over South African history. For Grieger, there was a passion (internal source of inspiration) to undermine subliminal messages using logos and icons as opinion modifiers. Even Ofili’s dung aesthetic was from an impulsive, internal reaction to his frustrations.

So although there may be a clear external source for a particular project, the artist’s own background spurs a kind of internal inspiration. It is an artist’s own unique experiences, emotions, internal thoughts (whether subconscious or conscious) that bring a focus and perception of a certain external inspiration.