Inspiration is fine. Everyone draws from somewhere. But when it slides into copying, it becomes lazy. Worse, it becomes insulting. And laughably, most artists think they can get away with it. They can’t.
It shows. It always does. In the stiffness of execution, the lack of authorship, the hollow core where intention should be. It reeks of shortcut culture—grab, remix, post, pretend. As if that’s enough to pass as practice.
What it actually shows is conceptual ineptitude. A refusal to do the hard work of developing a language, a method, a point of view. It’s not homage, it’s theft dressed up as tribute. And it points to a deeper problem—disregard. For the original artist, for the viewer, and for the medium.
We’re not short on talent. We’re short on integrity.
If you can’t bring your own thinking to the table, get out of the kitchen.