Art Imitates Life Imitates Art

Making art, like using tools, is what makes us human. Be it on a canvas, on a sculpture, via sound, through food, on how we build machines and buildings, how we build relationships, how we influence other people, how we influence our own worlds, all of it, is a kind of art. And the art that we consciously or unconsciously make is always derived from something else.

Another human trait is derivation – imitation. And that derivation crosses genres: Picasso was influenced by primitive art and angular shapes, Van Gogh was influenced by the countryside, modern rock was derived from Robert Johnson's 3 chords, Marilyn Manson and NIN were influenced by David Bowie, music clips are sampled and resampled, scales are used to write songs, deep and dark experiences are written into poetry and prose, lives are lived according to fictitious books and invented idols, airplane wing designs are derived from bird wings, political ideologies are broken down and pieced back together, art imitates life, life imitates art.

The derivation does not matter. What matters is how it's reinterpreted.