From the circular rotation of a potter’s wheel to an unfinished canvas, people find various ways to express themselves through art. Every piece of art has its own inspiration behind it and as painter Pablo Picasso said, “Inspiration does exist, but it must find you working.”
“I get inspired by a lot of different things,” digital art student Clare Colburn said. “Looking at other artists’ work, sometimes from friends, seeing pretty pictures or just looking at the sky and nature.”
In a Pew Research study, 50% of the art organizations polled strongly agreed that the internet has increased engagement in the arts by providing a public platform where more artists can share their work.
“I’ve had my own clay business since 2019 and I’ve been trying to share my ceramics on Instagram (@gretchenmullceramics) since then,” art teacher Gretchen Mull said. “I recently also got Tiktok, but I would say most of my inspiration comes from other artists on Instagram.”
According to art teacher Christine Choi, her digital art classes are completing a collaborative assignment where they will animate a purple sphere by moving it in different directions. She got the idea from a video on an arts website and thought it would be interesting to implement in her class. According to Fractured Atlas, a sharing website for artists, many used the app to conduct sales, performances and interviews.
“There’s so many great artists on Instagram and they make a lot of cool stuff,” Colburn said. “It makes me want to create more and get better.”
Like writer’s block, artists experience their own struggle of losing inspiration and ideas. With applications like Instagram, artists are able to find other ways to get inspired.
“I use Instagram for inspiration,” Choi said. “All my ‘For you’ pages are usually animation, illustrator, Photoshop related. I follow so many artists on Instagram and Tiktok because I love creative content and seeing posts of others.
According to Pew Research, some art organizations have agreed that the media made art more engaging and active to multiple people. This helps to increase the number of people participating in the growth of the art world.
“I look all over,” Mull said. “I follow a bunch of art teachers on Instagram, but also just being out in the world and experiencing other people’s art, going to an art museum and looking at artists’ blogs gives me inspiration.”
According to Choi, social media including Colossal and Triple, which are art websites that have many contemporary artists, provided inspiration and are her two favorite places to look at.
“I also get inspired by everyday things like when I go home and watch Netflix or Hulu,” Choi said. “The opening credits of TV shows or movies and being able to see the storytelling aspect is really inspiring.”
