I write, therefore I steal

Today's challenge is a completely new concept for me.  Stealing.

And I love it.

I've never actually stolen in real life. Unless hiding a cookie from the kitchen under your shirt when you're 5 and telling your mom you don't have a cookie under your shirt when she asks you is stealing.

But apparently this is an acceptable practice when it comes to art.  Our fearless leader Jeff tells us - "Give up on your pursuit of originality and genius and just find something that inspires you. Borrow from your friends and heroes and mash it all up into something that looks, feels, and sounds like you."

It's a community event. You don't want to steal from just one person, because that would get a bit obvious and maybe illegal.  So open up your options and steal from a large amount of sources. 

I say all this with a smile, because just taking others' stuff and saying it's ours isn't creative.  It's lazy.

It's the mashup part that makes this artistic stealing work.  The taking of all that comes into our life from a myriad of influences, experiences, memories, hobbies, passions and dreams and forming something new.  Just as human individuals we are the sum of our parents' DNA but not exact replicas of our parents themselves, so our stolen art will result in a wonderful expression of a combination of various inputs that suddenly becomes our own voice, our own contribution that is influenced by some but unlike any other. 

So go forth and steal.  Garner and glean.  Take what you like and leave the rest.

Because, as I've learned today, it's just like the hokey pokey.

That's what it's all about.