I'd also like to disagree with the claim "many artists seem to think their creativity was formed in a vacuum". In my experience, most artists will gladly list

I'd also like to disagree with the claim "many artists seem to think their creativity was formed in a vacuum". In my experience, most artists will gladly list out the artists that they've admired and studied from int their training, and specifically say what pieces or styles influenced any particular work. And then most of the time if you were to communicate that influence to the source artist(s) they would be overjoyed that someone appreciated their work so much that they contributed to the success of the new work. This is all part of training for and being an artist. These boundaries are set more in (artist) culture than in law, and of course there are those that violate those boundaries, but I think for the most part artists buy in to this shared creative experience, particularly the more invested and successful you get within the field.