Years ago I read and re-read a book called Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles & Ted Orland because I was struggling with my novel writing. What the authors have to say about talent is worth remembering when struggling with one’s art:
“Talent may get someone off the starting blocks faster, but without a sense of direction or a goal to strive for, it won’t count for much. The world is filled with people who were given great natural gifts, sometimes conspicuously flashy gifts, yet never produce anything. And when that happens, the world soon ceases to care whether they are talented.”
“By definition, whatever you have is exactly what you need to produce your best work. There is probably no clearer waste of psychic energy than worrying about how much talent you have—and probably no worry more common. This is true even among artists of considerable accomplishment.”
“Artists get better by sharpening their skills or by acquiring new ones; they get better by learning to work, and by learning from their work. They commit themselves to the work of their heart, and act upon that commitment. So when you ask, “Then why doesn’t it come easily for me?”, the answer is probably, “Because making art is hard!” What you end up caring about is what you do, not whether the doing came hard or easy.”
“Talent is a snare and a delusion. In the end, the practical questions about talent come down to these: Who cares? Who would know? and What difference would it make? And the practical answers are: Nobody, Nobody, and None.”
I've found that the most important factor in producing better work is learning what "better" looks like. That is, upping your standards. If you want to produce deathless prose, read deathless prose. If you want to produce paintings of a quality to rival Fra Angelico, learn what his work looks like, how it was produced. Read books by masters about technique. Go to classes to bring your drawing skills up to as high a level as you can manage. Do master copies. Do more master copies. Do still more master copies. Accumulate skills, but also the skill of looking. Look at works by Fra Angelico - pay the money to go to the galleries where his works are displayed. If you are really determined, you will not let distance or cost stop you. I worked a full time job while taking as many art classes as I could possibly afford. Do the damn work, and stop mumbling about "talent."
I think you're mostly right... there are three things, though, that make up "talent" in my mind:
- people who are quick learners at a skill. The skill doesn't come effortlessly, but some people learn certain skills faster.
- love, as you put it -- the desire to be good at the thing that makes you beat your head against the wall and throw countless thousands of hours at it.
- what you call genius - upper bounds to the skill. Almost everyone can learn almost every skill to a high degree of competency, enough to take on that profession. But the truly great people in a craft are built differently, whether physical or mental. They still won't get there if they don't put in the work.
For my chosen profession, software development, I have the first two - quick learning and love - but not the genius. There are only so many John Carmacks or Linus Torvalds or Dennis Ritchies of the world, and they truly are geniuses. But they also put in the work. The best part of my learning was whenever a layer of "magic" was stripped away, and I could see the "oh, OK, this is just something built by ordinary people who understood things deeply and applied hard-learned skills".
I am a terrible artist, but every time I actually put some effort into learning something -- building things with bezier curves, 3D modeling, etc. I pierce through the veil just enough to understand "oh, if I put 5000 hours into this, I could become good at this type of art." I think the same with drawing or music. But there's only so many hours in the day.
It actually drives me crazy working with various people who treat programming as this raw magical force that only special wizards that were born with it can wield, and the rest of people are just hapless muggles who were born without access to this mystic energy. Hogwash! Anyone that can learn 6th grade math can learn how to program. You just have to care enough to put in the time, and most people don't care enough. And that's fine!
Just a thought : the "talents" of the Gospel can be considered (although this is not the only aspect) as natural aptitudes – being more gifted for this or that. Just looking at my children I have seen since they were born that they have different "talents" – God certainly did not make us equal, and thanks to that there can be harmony. But we are ordered to make talents multiply – by all it takes; blood and tears and toil and sweat!
Years ago I read and re-read a book called Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles & Ted Orland because I was struggling with my novel writing. What the authors have to say about talent is worth remembering when struggling with one’s art:
“Talent may get someone off the starting blocks faster, but without a sense of direction or a goal to strive for, it won’t count for much. The world is filled with people who were given great natural gifts, sometimes conspicuously flashy gifts, yet never produce anything. And when that happens, the world soon ceases to care whether they are talented.”
“By definition, whatever you have is exactly what you need to produce your best work. There is probably no clearer waste of psychic energy than worrying about how much talent you have—and probably no worry more common. This is true even among artists of considerable accomplishment.”
“Artists get better by sharpening their skills or by acquiring new ones; they get better by learning to work, and by learning from their work. They commit themselves to the work of their heart, and act upon that commitment. So when you ask, “Then why doesn’t it come easily for me?”, the answer is probably, “Because making art is hard!” What you end up caring about is what you do, not whether the doing came hard or easy.”
“Talent is a snare and a delusion. In the end, the practical questions about talent come down to these: Who cares? Who would know? and What difference would it make? And the practical answers are: Nobody, Nobody, and None.”
I've found that the most important factor in producing better work is learning what "better" looks like. That is, upping your standards. If you want to produce deathless prose, read deathless prose. If you want to produce paintings of a quality to rival Fra Angelico, learn what his work looks like, how it was produced. Read books by masters about technique. Go to classes to bring your drawing skills up to as high a level as you can manage. Do master copies. Do more master copies. Do still more master copies. Accumulate skills, but also the skill of looking. Look at works by Fra Angelico - pay the money to go to the galleries where his works are displayed. If you are really determined, you will not let distance or cost stop you. I worked a full time job while taking as many art classes as I could possibly afford. Do the damn work, and stop mumbling about "talent."
I think you're mostly right... there are three things, though, that make up "talent" in my mind:
- people who are quick learners at a skill. The skill doesn't come effortlessly, but some people learn certain skills faster.
- love, as you put it -- the desire to be good at the thing that makes you beat your head against the wall and throw countless thousands of hours at it.
- what you call genius - upper bounds to the skill. Almost everyone can learn almost every skill to a high degree of competency, enough to take on that profession. But the truly great people in a craft are built differently, whether physical or mental. They still won't get there if they don't put in the work.
For my chosen profession, software development, I have the first two - quick learning and love - but not the genius. There are only so many John Carmacks or Linus Torvalds or Dennis Ritchies of the world, and they truly are geniuses. But they also put in the work. The best part of my learning was whenever a layer of "magic" was stripped away, and I could see the "oh, OK, this is just something built by ordinary people who understood things deeply and applied hard-learned skills".
I am a terrible artist, but every time I actually put some effort into learning something -- building things with bezier curves, 3D modeling, etc. I pierce through the veil just enough to understand "oh, if I put 5000 hours into this, I could become good at this type of art." I think the same with drawing or music. But there's only so many hours in the day.
It actually drives me crazy working with various people who treat programming as this raw magical force that only special wizards that were born with it can wield, and the rest of people are just hapless muggles who were born without access to this mystic energy. Hogwash! Anyone that can learn 6th grade math can learn how to program. You just have to care enough to put in the time, and most people don't care enough. And that's fine!
Just a thought : the "talents" of the Gospel can be considered (although this is not the only aspect) as natural aptitudes – being more gifted for this or that. Just looking at my children I have seen since they were born that they have different "talents" – God certainly did not make us equal, and thanks to that there can be harmony. But we are ordered to make talents multiply – by all it takes; blood and tears and toil and sweat!