The older I am, and the more I take pictures, the more I see that an artist is not becoming an artist at birth. Of course, talent is crucial. It facilitates and accelerates many things.
But, I am sure that 99% of success in art is “work, work, and once again work.”
Once upon a time, there was a painter. His name was Salvador Dali. He was an exception. Famous Spanish master knew from the very beginning that he was a real artist. For most of my life, I thought that the same thing happened with all other artists. I was convinced that all other masters of art (not only the above-mentioned famous Spanish painter) were born artists from the early start of their lives.
Today, after making twenty-five thousand photographs in 2018, I am smarter a little bit. Studying Taschen’s books also taught me a lot.
Now I know that all of them (including Salvador) possessed not only the talent to become an artist. The exact thing, which made them worldwide famous artists were work, effort, and perseverance. Other artists (including my favorite: Leonardo da Vinci, Frederic Chopin, Hiroshige, Fyodor Dostoyevski, Pablo Picasso, Stanislaw Lem, Zdzislaw Beksinski, and David Bowie) possessed standard features. They all were hard-working people and prolific artists. Yes, they owned a big talent, but they would not be able to reach the top without the hard work daily.
So, what is the conclusion for us?
I hope, my dear friend, that you don’t think anymore that you have to be born as an artist to become an artist. Study biographies of all people written above. Then, see that standard features which they possessed are hard-working attitude and artistic fertility. Also, they were persistent. The main conclusion is that if we want to make a career in art, we should shut down our laptops and smartphones. Then, we should start to create!