making art is hard

 “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…making art is hard. Talent is a snare and a delusion.”Art and Fear: Observations on the perils and rewards of artmaking. David Bayles and Ted Orland.

In the summer of my freshman year in high school, I attended a national arts camp at the University of Kansas at Lawrence consisting of specially picked kids from across the country ages 14-18…. It was six weeks of intensive classes in painting, life drawing, and cartooning. I had been a big fish in a little pond in my high school and it was easy to be confident about my abilities…

…until I watched Diane work at her art.

Diane was my roommate. She had curly red hair and dressed like she did not care what anyone thought. She was difficult and arrogant. I did not like her but her facility in interpreting any object of her gaze was irrefutable.  She worked confidently and her pencil easily went to all the right places ..capturing nuance, shadows and gesture….maddenly adept. And it was not because she worked hard at it…she just had it…a rare (albeit obnoxious) natural genius. We managed the summer together via avoidance. She paraded her unfair advantage throughout the dorm. My stuff was stiff and hard won. Hers was loose and she could accomplish with three well-placed lines what took me a dozen.

 I never heard anymore about Diane after that summer. The dark side of me has imagined she got married to an Allis Chalmers mechanic, had half dozen kids, got fat and never drew again. I was altogether intimidated.

I think that my summer with Diane contributes largely to the healthy response I have to the silly conversations that invariably arise at shows or in workshops or classes. They almost always include the refrain…. “You just have talent” or “I wish I had that kind of talent”.  The myth of the potency and exclusivity  of talent absolves us of the obligation to work hard. It evades the need for commitment to work and is a “snare and a delusion.”

Diane had talent. Michelangelo had talent. Marty works hard. Most of us have to work hard.