Good Artists copy, Great artists Steal !

Pablo Picasso died in 1973. It may well not be widely known, (or it might be!) that Pablo wrote poetry as well as painted, so he was a fellow writer. (He'd have probably been member of many a writing forum had he lived just 11 years more to see the birth of the internet).

In his life time Pablo was believed to have said that:

"Good artists copy, and great artists steal". 

Now as a new writer (who is marked upon originality) it seems to me it is a statement that flies in the face of originality. But having said that, as a screenwriter (and future novelist, hopefully) the job we have is to create characters, place them within a story that we structure, and give it meaning. So, unless we are the most creative and imaginative mind in the world we must at least borrow our necessary ingredients from our experiences.

Now if we were to simply copy those experiences and mesh them together without changing them, our stories would end up incoherent. However instead by taking those experiences, (whether our own or not) and owning them, manipulating their makeup so as to fit together neatly in one story, have we stolen them? At what stage does the stealing matter? Have we stolen the idea if what we end up with is something we have totally reinvented? Arguably something new and NOT the original idea we stole (supposedly)?

The dictionary definition of stealing is:

 Dishonestly pass off another person's ideas as one's own.

Now in art that may be possible. The periods that art has gone through (Cubism for example in Picasso's case) perhaps lend themselves to the argument that artists are all trying to perfect the same 'genre',  or 'style' of their time. Thus, one could indeed pinch another artist's idea should they foolishly share them so liberally with you. But if Pablo considered himself a great artist, and I'm sure he did, then he must have been stealing his ideas! Now unless in the 70's there were an awful lot of women with some pretty clean cut jaw lines walking around, or an underground painter Pablo stole his ideas from, I don't think he was speaking in literal terms when he chose the word steal!

In my opinion with writing, I am inclined to take the stance that, naturally one can never steal an idea and pass it off as one's own, as every idea comes from an experience and only in interpretation can that idea take on meaning. This is assuming a great writer, as Picasso refers to, would not simply look to steal another's idea merely to have it but to own it - thus add himself to it, effectively changing it!

A fellow writer once said to me 'ideas are free'. Now indeed perhaps they are. They are always there for the taking. Thus, if I am stealing my ideas from the universe , I am indeed passing them off as my own, albeit not dishonestly! I'm a Catholic girl I'll have you know!

What I don't like about this argument is that it lends itself to support the premise that modern art is feasibly art, when in fact most of it is a pile of crap. (A controversial opinion I know.) And no I don't agree that the unappreciative feeling you get when you glaze over at a canvas with a red dot on it, unable to find the true meaning, is arguably 'the point'!  Please, I mean our bedroom is untidy all the time and we don't stand marveling at it, let alone asks others to pay for the privilege to do so!

Tracey Emin's Bed

I digressed a bit there, but I think I have found my comfortable conclusion. In writing, one must be original. However, our ideas can be borrowed but, our telling of the story, the sewing of seeds that grow in your imagination cannot be stolen, and that is very much what makes us Great Writers!