BASQUIAT's work ethic

[Music] xami sha Basia had endless inspiration he was the embodiment of artistic flow and while most artists will never approach anything close to his once in a generation Talent there are a few things you could learn from his work methods that will help you tap into your own creative genius for example at the beginning of his career bosia went out and bought two books two books that would inform all of his work right up until death the first book was this one Henry draus symbol Source book this rare book would end up providing Source material

for almost all of the 1500 drawings and 600 paintings that he left behind his art was filled with symbols ladders crowns crosses copyrights and all of them came from this rare book many of them are gathered on one page page page 90 a page that almost looks like a dictionary of his whole artistic language and if you look at the symbol over here that's the mandai symbol he used this symbol sadly to symbolize and prophesize his own death Source material one of the secrets to staying in flow Basia used Source material like he was J

dilla sampling records but Source material alone won't automatically give you creativity you have to learn how to use it the artist way ultimately it comes down to taste it comes down to trying to expose yourself to the best things that humans have done and then try to bring those things in to what you're doing I mean Picasso had a saying he said good artists copy great artists steal stealing like an artist means stealing with no judgment let your taste make the decisions not your brain where do the the words come from I um real life

books television yeah and you just skim them and start including no me when I'm working I hear them you know and I just throw them down oh yeah well I mean things like Punic Wars I remember that was in one of your oh that was from uh a a guide book on Roman history history of Roman five pages you know and so you snatched a few words from it I snatched them you know they they caught your they caught my eyee you know and I took them the moment you stop judging should I use this

what would people say you open yourself up for flow go go through what what's this Pluto based on a a drawing that was the first drawing of the Moon by Galileo yeah this looks like an eye yeah yeah that's that's the that's the evil eye the volio okay so you're stealing like an artist now but how do you become more than just the sum of your influences how do you make it all make sense you choose what serves your message the second book that gave Basia his unparalleled God momentum is this one flash of the

spirit a book about African art this book was key in helping him zero in on his message you see the reason most artists lose flow when they're working is because when they get stuck they have no guiding ideology to get them out of their tough spots and because they don't know what they're trying to communicate to the world any roadblock could stop them in their tracks for days overthinking staring at a blank canvas artist paralysis that's what happens when you don't have an overarching message in your work Basia did I think there's a lot of

people that that neglected in in in art I don't know if because if it's who made the paintings or what but um I don't know it seems I know black people never really portrayed realistically or not even portray I mean not even portrayed in modern art enough and because he had a message art came out of him that much more effortlessly it's not just that he had Source material it's that he had a place to channel it is there any anger in you any anger in your of course there is of course there is talk

about that tell me what what the anger is what are you angry [Music] about his work became a commentary on the underrepresentation of black art in the established art world world this looks like a uh a skull that's a GCO a what Gasco a GCO what's that GCO CCO C when you have a message art comes out of you easily but a message tons of source material and your newfound audacity to steal like an artist is still not enough you'll never have that Bosa Limitless inspiration and flow if you don't Master speed the day Basia

met Andy Warhol he ran back home and painted a self-portrait of both of them from a Polaroid his Idol had just taken and then he ran back to the restaurant to give it to him as a gift the paint was still fresh Warhol couldn't believe it all he kept repeating was oh I'm jealous I'm jealous he's faster than me oh God you're so fast and these are so great and that was the beginning of everything between Andy and and joh Melle when one of the most prolific artists of all time is jealous of your speed

you know you're doing something right speed work quickly like a demon you should work so fast that you don't have time to think the brain is your enemy in art like they say in the music industry keep the tape rolling if you really want to become the legendary artist that you have the potential to be if you really want that endless inspiration you have to understand that most of the flow that you will have while making art will come from all the things you were doing when you were not making art what in between your

creative sessions while everyone else is busy consuming regurgitated content on social media you should go offline and you should go deep most people they need to rev up when they sit down to work they need hours before they could finally get into the groove that's because they haven't been feeding their minds during their downtime when never went to an art school I failed the art courses that I did take in in school um I just looked I just looked at a lot of those things and that's what that's what I think I learned about art

by looking at it go to museums that's a Roman belt bule from a drawing that did did the Metropolitan went all the way to Metropolitan Museum and I did the drawing of the Buckle and I came back with it and I put it right there oh well that's that's kind of a slow process I'm a slow person the process may seem slow to an outsider but that slow process is what makes you outrageously fast when you get back into the studio study memorize and internalize make that your Mantra and those ideas you consume will marinate

inside of you and eventually become part of your artistic DNA suddenly the oddest things will come out of you at the most unexpected times it's all because you made yourself this well of inspiration you became a student of Life ready at any time to express your Genius for more tips on growing your creativity listen to the art not content podcast on Spotify and apple music