You Have No Talent

Image by: Dawid Zawiła

If you have heard this before, welcome to the club, friend! If you say this to yourself – please stop – I think we have enough critics and doubters out there. As someone who has been told many times that I have no talent for art, a burning question I always wanted to answer for myself was how does one recognize talent? How can these critics point to one piece of art and pronounce it rubbish, and then point to another and deem it worth millions of dollars? Can you see talent only after few brush strokes or can you see it only after 10,000 brush strokes? Are we born with talent or do we have to work hard for it? Or is it something else?

One of my favorite writers, Malcom Gladwell, wrote an excellent book Outliers on just this topic and it turns out that some folks are truly born with talent and affinity. However, to become truly successful there is also tons of hard work that must be put into practicing (10,000 hour rule). But that’s not all my friend. After reading many more books on success, extraordinary minds, and mindsets - it looks like we need to sprinkle little bit of faith in our own self, focus on what makes us happy, imagine ourselves succeeding, change our stinky attitudes, and want what we want so badly and so passionately that the only thing universe can do is say ‘yes’ and grant our wildest dreams a wish.

Back when I was little, any drawing or painting was met with cold, evil stares. By our household rules, drawing was a leisure activity best suited to those nice and classy folks who, unlike us, had no real work to do and naturally had time for ‘that nonsense.’ According to my family, if you weren’t visibly struggling - you probably weren’t working hard enough. Therefore, if I was ever going to make it in life – I was going to have to find something “smarter to do” where I had to properly sweat, cry, and suffer. So off the desk my sketchbooks and coloring pencils went to be promptly replaced by “something smarter.”

In my family’s defense, I actually was quite messy and clumsy with art. Well, I was clumsy with everything, really. My books and notebooks always had turned corners, I constantly doodled, ripped sheets of paper out of notebooks, dressed dreadfully, could not pair colors to save my life, and I most definitely colored outside the lines.

Ever since then, I was bent on finding some sort of art, besides doodling, that I was good at. I found literature, music, and theater but was never brave enough to start drawing or painting again. This glorious, forbidden world of art was sort of closed off to me, as I had no talent. But how I admired, no, how I revered, all those who could paint and draw.

Well, now at the tender age of almost forty, and after doing lots of “smart things” in corporate America, it’s about time I come out of the shadows, give my heart some happiness and learn how to draw and paint. I am officially becoming a student of art. Not only am I embarking on this journey to find out, once and for all, if my sister was right and I truly have no talent but I also, kind of want to test this hypothesis of whether or not Malcom Gladwell’s theory is onto something. Can you have affinity yet no true talent, like myself, and still become successful artist after doing 10,000 hours of practicing? And by successful – I mean, can I sell one of my paintings to a complete stranger after 10,000 hours of practicing?

Art appreciation and art creation should not be open only to the wealthy and educated. If you have ever stood in front of the piece of artwork or listened to a song that brought you down to tears, then, my friend, art is for you. If you ever looked at the piece of art or witnessed an event that made you angry or made you want to start a revolution, then my friend, art is for you too. And if you ever felt joy, or pain so deep, felt like a complete waste of space or felt like a success, yes - art is for you, too. You don’t need a fancy degree to experience or create art. All that is required is a beating heart. In the world where even robots can be taught to create art and be paid millions – who the hell is going to stop you or I from telling our own story through art.

All I know is that I must do this. So, that is what I will do. And whether you will be as inspired to create something of your own, go out and start appreciating art, or have an ego boost from looking at my crappy stuff, I hope to see you along on my journey.

And I invite you to be brave like me and go pursue your dream. I am certainly letting the universe know what my wildest dreams are and going for it. Even though I have no talent. But I do have a dream.

“Make a wish tonight. Maybe miracle is bored.”