I’ve been contemplating originality for over a year now. Many an artistic guru has touched on this topic, unpacking the nuances of inspiration and originality and how those two things can go together. I love Elizabeth Gilbert’s take on it: That originality is inconsequential and what makes an idea feel original is you; your experience and unique perspective.

This concept was in my mind as I contemplated doing a project inspired by Francesca Woodman. A self-portrait artist herself, Woodman experimented with photography in a haunting and psychological way, and ever since discovering her (actually my uni professor mentioned her to me and I had to look her up), I’ve wanted to explore using her images as inspiration.

I’m not always great with follow-through. As a scatterbrained human whose mind struggles to stay on task (mainly because everything is so connected and my thoughts move rather quickly), I struggle to complete projects before being bombarded with other ideas that call for my attention. I have more success following through if I have an external motivator; so I pitched my project as a course to Unraveled Academy and called it Copycat.

But I’m not going to talk about that. I created a whole course on it, and if you’re interested, head to Unraveled Academy (I highly recommend checking them out because they are awesome). You can find the course here: https://www.theunraveledacademy.com/course/copycat-sashacasta

I could just give you the breakdown of what I was thinking as I created these images, but that would rob you of the satisfaction of your own perspective. However, I would like to introduce you to the themes I was dealing with while I worked on the project (Poverty, Religion, Knowledge, and Hunger) and invite you to consider them while you look at the images.

Drop a comment below; I would love to engage with you and hear your take on the series.