Artists are Born, Not Made
I want to share with you the beliefs that interfered with me taking my own art seriously.
Let’s look at some of these myths closely. Today’s myth is one of my favorites!
Myth #1: Artists are born, not made.
Fact: A passion for art has to be there, but all other skills are acquired. No one is born knowing how to play the piano.
The first step to becoming an artist is to want to be an artist.
Sounds too simple, doesn’t it? After all, artists are born, not
made….right? You either have talent or you don’t.
Wrong! No one is born knowing how to draw, or how to paint, or how
to sculpt or throw a pot, anymore than anyone is born knowing how to
play the piano or drive a car. These are all skills. They can be taught,
they can be learned. Some people may find the process of acquiring
those skills to be exhilarating, others may find the process boring. The
people who find the process exhilarating may pick up the skill quickly
and easily. Or they may not.
I happen to be a slow learner at some artistic processes. For
example, I don’t like to draw. When I put my mind to it, I can draw
passably well. But I don’t like sitting quietly and observing something,
then using a tool to recreate that image on a two-dimensional surface,
such as a piece of paper. So I was called an artist in elementary school
because I could draw reasonably well, but secretly thought I was an
imposter because I didn’t like drawing. And never progressed very far
with it.
Later in life, I discovered I did like modeling clay into pleasing
forms. And that I enjoyed a collage-like approach to most of the
artwork I made. If you look at my artwork, you’ll almost always see a
combination of media, and some sort of shaping and manipulation of form
going on. But you’ll hardly ever see a 2-D work.
DO WHAT YOU LOVE, LOVE WHAT YOU DO
So we can fall into two traps by believing the myth that “artists are born, not made”.
One, we can be very good at something we don’t really enjoy, and believe that is our calling. Part
of the reason for that is sometimes we learn how to do the things we
don’t like, really, really well, so we can get them done and out of the
way. But if you don’t enjoy doing something, no matter how good you get
at doing it, it will always drain energy from you. So be careful about
putting the focus of your energy into doing things you don’t enjoy, if
you don’t have to.
And two, we can love doing something we aren’t very skilled at….yet!
And that’s actually okay. Being willing to pursue something just
because we love it can be very rewarding, if only because we’ll spend
more time doing it–and hopefully, get better at it someday. Doing
something we love feeds us. It gives us more energy.
So what are we born with? If not an innate ability to draw, then perhaps an attentive
eye.
We notice that there’s more than one shade of green in that leafy tree,
or that the light just before sunset makes everything glow more richly.
Perhaps we enjoy observing something closely and like the process of
drawing.
Or maybe an attentive
ear. Maybe we can remember
tunes easily, and enjoy riffing off them every chance we get. Music
affects almost all of us, but some people feel it is more than just
enjoyable–it is necessary to have it, compose it, play it.
Maybe it’s our
hands that have to be busy. Maybe
picking up unusual rocks and pieces of driftwood and shells is as much
fun for us as shoe-shopping is for our sister. We always have to be
touching, hefting an object, enjoying its odd texture or beautiful
grain. Maybe having the right mix of color and texture in our living
room furniture is more important to us than the brand name.
All of these tendencies and yearnings may be the signs of a
budding artist. But unless you follow them, nurture them and feed them,
they won’t bloom.
So if you’ve always wanted to be an artist, but felt you didn’t have what it takes, you know better now.
Go sign up for that drawing class, or ceramics class. Learn how to
paint with watercolor, or create with molds! Jump in, and simply enjoy
the process of learning a new skill.
Keep at it, and eventually you may find one that gladdens your heart enough to do it every day.
