I hear it all the time. "I WISH I HAD YOUR TALENT AND PAINT LIKE YOU". I hear it so often actually that today I decided to dedicate a whole blog to it.
I hear the same thing all over again in different shades of grey. Many (if not most) people who exclaim their appreciation of my art do it through attributing it to my "talent". They very rarely say: wow man you must have worked so hard to get to this level of painting. They just think that "I am talented thus I can pick up the brush and paint whatever I want in an amazing style and detail cause I got the magic requirement for it nailed down- talent"
HELL NO.
Repeat after me 3 times:
Talent is overrated and hard work is shunned
Talent is overrated and hard work is shunned
TALENT IS FRIKIN OVERRATED AND HARD WORK IS SHUNNED I SAY!
!
But I'll say more on this just to piss few people off. Many people also use the "lack of talent" as an excuse for their mediocre life. The famous LACK OF TALENT is a counter story of TALENT, and it's just as big. It's huge in the dictionary of the mind-scape of many people and it's almost always a disguise of largely denied quality:
Laziness
.
Yup you heard me. Most people who so called "don't have a talent" are just plain lazy.
I bet you heard this quote before:
I don't think that most people actually understand what is meant by dark places here. Dark places it the blood and sweat and tears that you'll go through to make a diamond out of your uncut raw piece of stone which is worth nothing without your absolute dedication. Dark places is the failure after failure after hopelessness that you will be subject to and where most give up, before you can even make your over-rated talent show up as anything decent in the real world.
You know, Pareto's principle applies to whole lot of things. And in certain way it applies to painting too (or any artistic effort for that matter), if in somewhat reversed way. There was a famous painter in the town where I grew up. His name was Zenozicka. Even back in the deep communist era, some 40-60 years back, he used to claim one thing: 80% of people can become proficient painters. And he proved it many times. By teaching (he was an excellent art teacher), all sorts of people how to paint. People who claimed to be complete art-morons who can only draw stick figures (that's another analogy that I hear way too often that makes me wanna answer back...). And by making them progress and become proficient painters, beyond their initial belief.
Now don't get me wrong. Of course many people who claim they can't paint are telling the truth. But not because they lack talent, but because they DON'T WANT TO LEARN. If you don't want to learn, if you don't have a genuine desire to master a new skill, you won't ever learn shit.
But desire is not all. That's only the ticket to the concert but it won't put your ass in the moshpit. It won't magically teleport you to the "desired acquisition of skill" area. You gotta grind your way there.
I saw it happen myself many times, because I attended plein-air courses 2 or 3 years in a row and saw some real amateurs grow their skills exponentially just by their diligence and hard work. But I don't have to look at other people. I have myself as a suitable example of it.
SO LET'S HAVE A LOOK AT MY MASTER PIECES FROM DECADE AGO
THIS IS WHAT I PAINTED IN 2004, 25 YEARS OLD
I know, crazy talent right? You can already tell!!
The trees are just amazing. Sick talent. Blew Vincent away.
THIS IS WHAT I PAINTED 12 YEARS LATER
:
What do you think that I did in those 12 years? I just sit of my ass and let my talent take me to new highs?
NOPE
WHEN OTHERS STOPPED WORKING AT 5PM I KEPT ON WORKING TILL MIDNIGHT
WHEN OTHERS WENT FOR DRINKS I STAYED IN AND PAINTED
WHEN OTHERS HAD SOCIAL LIFE I HAD STUDIO ALONE LIFE
WHEN OTHERS HAD WEEKENDS OFF I WORKED 7 DAYS A WEEK
WHEN OTHERS FOCUSED ON LOOKING ATTRACTIVE AND GETTING LAID I PAINTED
WHEN OTHERS PURSUED SAFE CAREERS FOR CONVENIENCE OF PAYCHECK I GAVE UP WELL PAID JOB AND LIVED AT BORDERLINE OF POVERTY FOR 3 YEARS SO I COULD PERFECT MY SKILLS DOUBLE FULL TIME
I could go on for several hundred lines but I bet you get the point.
Next time you think: I wish I had talent for x just stop wishing and start doing. All you need is passion, joy and time. And time YOU HAVE! You just gotta cut out all the unessential fat, all the pleasure hunt and social media recognition BS etc.
I will tell you something to end this already way too long blog:
If you put the most attractive woman in the world in front of me, smoking hot beauty incarnated, and tell me: she can be your partner for life, your wife, and she will be sweet and tender to you, all you need to do is give up painting. If you tell me the same with a pile of money or any other thing that most people dream of, I would have the same answer to all of them:
GET LOST I NEED TO PAINT
And this, my friends, is the answer to all. Not talent. So let's say it one last time time today, merrily and together, shell we?:
TALENT IS OVERRATED SO GO AND DO THE FIRST STEP TODAY!
I hope I got you guys pumped a bit :D
Thanks for reading, commenting, upvoting and all the other love!
Jan @jankasparec
