"Internal Sources of Inspiration"(Jeff Barnard)

In this week’s reading, artwork is looked at like an expression of an artist’s internal inspiration towards a certain goal. Artists breathe life into they’re artwork and give it a life of its own through their inspirations to create them. But history has shown me that while we all will create a lot of works in our lives, only a select few will be remembered for a long time. This I think this is due, in part, to how we feel about certain pieces we create such as pieces for our classes and ones we create for ourselves. For class pieces, we work on a fixed schedule so we can only put so much into the artwork before the next one comes and thus, it doesn’t feel as special. For personal work however, time is not a factor so we can delve into our inspiration for the piece more and feel that we put some real effort into the piece.
Another topic in the reading is that an artist source of inspiration differs from artist to artist. Some chose the culture around them to affect what they created while others would seek inspiration from the artists that came before them by visiting museums. This is true for me as well because most of my works have been inspired by the entertainment culture that I see on TV and in video games or the movie industry. With all the things that are possible in these sections of our culture, it’s easy to see that we as artists can create anything we want if we put our minds to the task. I also see inspiration for art in a person’s opinion on things going on in the world like oppression, popular things for certain cultures like smoking, and environmental issues as well.
In conclusion, we as artist have better access to our creativeness because we have so many things to influence our work. From the culture that we are a part of to the artistic style of artists in the past, there are more than enough things to stimulate an artist’s inspiration so they create great art. However, depending on the artist, if the piece doesn’t seem to be all that important to them, it seems to disappear into time quickly. I have learned this first hand because some of the art I’ve created that I didn’t feel was good didn’t do well but art I invested myself in was praised. In the end, I think internal sourcing for an artist is essential for their art to have greater meaning and withstand the test of time.