There’s a persistent idea in the art world that success is something vague and unpredictable. That it’s down to timing, luck, taste, or being in the right place at the right moment. While all of those things can play a part, I’ve never found that explanation particularly satisfying. It removes responsibility from the artist and replaces it with mythology.

When art is done properly, it doesn’t just fill a space. It shapes it. It influences how a room feels, how a person feels within that room, and sometimes even how they see themselves within it. If that’s true, then selling art isn’t really about selling objects at all. It’s about offering inspiration in its most practical, lived-in form. Inspiration that doesn’t shout, doesn’t instruct, and doesn’t expire quickly, but sits quietly and does its work over time.

Artist Rich Simmons reflects on his lifelong admiration for Leonardo da Vinci — the original multidisciplinary creative — and how Da Vinci’s philosophy continues to inspire his own work, from engineered stencils to the founding of CreateScene and Art Is The Cure.