Hi All!

I had a framing client in my studio the other day and she was looking at some of my paintings. She told me that I was very talented. I thought, "If she only knew how many paintings I throw out, paint-over, how many just don't measure up to my own current standards.

This interaction got me to thinking about talent. Following are a few quotes on that subject:

“I am doubtful of any talent, so whatever I choose to be, will be accomplished only by long study and work” – Jackson Pollock

"Talent is so loaded a word, so full to the brim with meanings, that an artist might be wise to forget about it altogether and just keep on working.” –- Eric Maisel

"Creativity is not the finding of a thing, but the making something out of it after it is found.” -- James Russell Lowell

“Beyond talent lie all the usual words: discipline, love, luck -- but, most of all, endurance.” James Baldwin

If you search for quotations regarding talent, you find that lots of smart and quotable people don't believe so much in talents, but more in hard work. That takes a lot of pressure off of me! If I have only talent to depend on, I'm really up the creek. One the other hand working hard on skill and painting because I just love, love, love doing it, gives me hope for continued improvement in art and in all that I do! When I paint, I'm just trying to do what I can't already do.

What are you "talents," or should I say what is it that you put your heart and soul into?

Talk to you soon. D.