It's Not Talent, It's Practice

Hey fam! I felt the need to address this topic since it's something that has affected me for as long as I have been an artist, basically my entire life. And that topic is about one of the most common responses I and many other artists get to anyone who sees our art:

You're so talented!!!

So? I don't see what the fuss is about. Why are you writing about this? Thank you for asking!

The fuss is not about the comment itself, or about the person who comments it, or the intention behind why someone would comment this. Most of the time the comment is made from an audience member that has yet to experience what it's like to become an artist. It's a well-intended, complementary response to seeing something amazing. Don't get me wrong, I also thought this was an appropriate reaction as well before I started taking my art more seriously and stepped into the role of someone who is receiving the comment rather than giving it.

It's All About Context

So what is the fuss about? As with most topics up for discussion, it's all about the context behind it. For example, the adage, "Money is the root of all evil," implies that from money stems all things evil. However, this is the shortened version. The full text says, "The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil." It changes the context to imply that it's the greedy desire for money that can lead to several kinds of evil such as blood money, laundered money and placing the value of material things higher than more important, long term satisfying things like a healthy relationship, physical health and the well-being of others. It's about the context.

What is the Context Here?

What does that have to do with the text, "You're so talented"? It's an analogy to help break down the idea that context is everything, from well-known sayings down to short comments made on an artist's post of their latest work. Without context, the comment sounds so uplifting, validating and praiseworthy towards the artist from the view of the audience that is awestruck by the excellence they put forth. And yes, it is easy to see it that way and it's completely understandable why someone would make that comment, but let me introduce you to another perspective, the artist perspective who is receiving that comment.

The context changes from, "Your talent is what produced this wonderful work of art and you are so gifted, I could never do that and yet it's so easy for you," to the context of, "It must be a work of divinity or something innate because there is no other explanation as to how this masterpiece could exist by the hands of a regular human being." Basically from the artist's POV the comment is saying, you must be magic or something because there is no other way you could do this.

Hopefully at this point you're saying to yourself, "No, that's wrong. Obviously it's not magic because it does exist and (insert artist name here) made it." Which is correct. The artwork had to have been made by human hands and human thoughts and human feelings because its very existence proves that it can be accomplished by a regular human being (the artist) without the use of magic or some other mysterious force that likely does not exist.

If you are not thinking this, let me put it in another way from another well-known, inspiring artist, Bob Ross. His thoughts on talent are as follows, "Talent is a pursued interest. In other words, anything you are willing to practice, you can do." Hey! There's another key word!

Practice

What? Practice! Practice! Practice!

As Bob Ross eloquently states, talent is not intangible. It does not come from anything other than the artist who made the artwork. It comes from putting in the 10,000 hours worth of time, energy, motivation and investment just to get to the skill level everyone starts at.

Practice is a combination of many factors. The desire to go do. The mental, physical, emotional and spiritual toll that is the price for improvement. Putting in the time and effort to draw the eyes just right, or to compose a spread of a magazine to be visually pleasing, throwing down yet another hunk of clay on a pottery wheel after failing to center it for the 7th time, long hours of repeating musical scales just to hit that one section of music so it flows and flipping through 5 sketchbooks worth of anatomy studies to finally get that hand to not look broken. Wracking up failure after failure after failure just to get one good result.

It's forcing yourself to move past the fixed mindset of, "I will never be good at art" to a growth mindset of, "I might not be where I want to be right now, but I am determined to get there. And I will." Ya boy, Thomas Edison had a growth mindset of, "I didn't fail 1,000 times. I just found 1,000 ways to NOT make a lightbulb." While praiseworthy for his optimistic approach and something worth striving for, not all artists see it that way. Realistically they do experience failures, just like everyone else. Developing skill is HARD and counting a good portion of that practice as failure is not a healthy mindset, but it's a real mindset we all experience at some point. The point is not to crush your soul by failing more than succeeding, the point it to push past those failures with the motivation and determination to get that one success.

And that one success is so worth it. It's so worth it that is becomes borderline addictive. It's addictive in the sense that an artist will not care how long they have to work on a passion piece, as long as there is that rush of dopamine waiting for them when they finally see that yes, the anatomy looks amazing, the color balance is perfect, your choice of typography meshes so well with the graphic design, all of the failures will not hold a candle to that feeling. The feeling of accomplishment, the feeling of pay-off, the feeling of finding meaning and purpose.

Failure Equals Weakness and Success Equals Strength

So how does it tie in to our comment at the beginning? Because like almost every artist does, they don't like to show their failures. Who does? No one. We don't want others to see our failures because we associate failure as weakness. No, we want to showcase our strengths. They are what's important. If I am a graphic designer am I going to show a potential client my not so great package or billboard designs? Of course not. I want to show my best package and billboard designs. Because those are successes and success is associated with strength.

When I make a post about some project I've been working on am I going to show you all of the mediocre brainstorming sketches or point out how bad I messed up on a few parts? No. I want people to see the final product. The product I am proud of. The product that I boldly display in all its glory because I got my dopamine rush and I want to say, "Hey! Look! I made this!" (and all it took were weeks of frustration, artist block, a knot in my shoulder blade, caffeine as my only energy renewing source and maybe some tears from how much I think I'm not good enough to measure up to my own too-high, unrealistic standards of what I am capable of). It was all worth it in the end. The reward was greater than the cost.

Side note: If you have the same feelings towards anything you are passionate about. It's alright. It's okay to have those feelings and they are very real and very valid to have. You're not alone and please try to go easy on yourself. How you handle the feeling of failure and inadequacy is for you to discover yourself, but you don't have to do it alone. There is support if you need it.

You, the artist, just made this post about something you did that was really cool and you are getting a lot of positive responses from your viewers. You did such a good job, they love your work and you deserve the praise. Failure? Never heard of her. You're so talented!

Oops...

You're so talented!

"This is amazing!"

"So cool!"

"Awesome!"

"Good Job!"

"Love, love, love your art!"

"I wish I could draw like you! I can't even draw a stick figure."

"It just comes so easy to you! A real divine blessing."

"You're so talented! I don't know where you get it from!"

There it is. You're so talented. You, the artist, the creator of this truly spectacular thing, you who spent days, weeks or even months pouring your all into it, the good, the bad and the ugly...and your talent gets all the credit. That's right. You can't claim your own work. It's not yours anymore. It's your talent's. Did your talent have any input into this thing? Was your talent there when your back was hurting from sitting in the same position? How about when you erased that line so many times it left a permanent ghost of a mark on your paper? Or when you finally had to give up for the night because the angle was off? What about when you decided to scrap the whole thing and start from scratch? If your talent was so great, where was it when you needed it most?

It's Not Talent, It's Practice

Absolutely.

These are all real comments I've received in the past, along with many of my friends in the art community. It's the same frustration. Giving talent, the mysterious magic, the credit instead of your hard work and your dedication. Magic didn't make this art. I/We/You did. We put in the time and effort, not talent. To give talent the spotlight completely invalidates our 10,000 hours worth of work. That's not fair. Talent had nothing to do with it. Talent didn't just make it appear, we did, with practice. Trial and error, learning from your mistakes, pushing forward despite them.

I hope this puts things into a different perspective for the audience viewing the artwork. It's a well-meaning comment. Of course. It doesn't say anything about the people making the comment. They know who did the work and they want to show their love and praise in the best way they know how, by telling the artist how splendid the final product is, how worthy of admiration both the artist and the artwork are. It's amazing, the things you can do with your thoughts and your hands. It's not about the comment itself, it's about the context behind it. Why many artists see it as an invalidation of their hard work. It's okay to fail and be frustrated and tired, but it pays off with a really cool masterpiece. No one wants to show their failures, but they still serve as a valuable learning experience so they are not to be ashamed of.

Is talent this awful, evil thing to avoid talking about? No. In fact, let's talk more about it and continue to discuss our thoughts and feelings. All perspectives are equally valid and warrant being put up for discussion. The dialogue should continue. In fact, I have a few suggestions for better phrasing comments to add to an artist's post:

"You're so skilled!"

"The hard work has certainly been paying off!"

"Amazing!"

"Good Job!"

"So cool!"

"I really like______" (bonus if you add a reason: I like ______ because _____).

"I hope I can get to your skill level one day!"

"This definitely took a lot of effort and it shows!"

"That's Awesome!"