Imitate, Assimilate, Then Innovate: The Artist’s Learning Process

“The learning process for artists of all stripes usually follows the path of imitate, assimilate, then innovate.  If an artist is struck by something in his or her chosen art form, there is an all-consuming desire to absorb everything about it.  During the process of assimilation the artist’s output will be an imitation of the beloved form.  In the end, for the uniquely gifted, there will be innovation.  Sometimes if something proves impossible to replicate for some reason, the artist pushes to find another way – innovation by default.  Dave Van Ronk said about his unique guitar style: I tried … to copy those old guys, but I just couldn’t do it, so I had to come up with something.”

Passage taken from  A Freewheelin’ Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties, by Suze Rotolo, 2008 Broadway Books

Perhaps one of the reasons for the scarcity of great artists, comparatively, is that few artists move past the “imitate” and “assimilate” stages.  And perhaps one reason that many of the new artists hailed each year as “fresh innovators” don’t last is because they don’t realize you can’t or shouldn’t skip the first two stages.  You have to have a solid base underneath your innovation — a ground of tradition upon which to walk before you take off into flight.