I have had this discussion before, basically the value of talent vs. the value of hard work and what i believe is this:
Talent, whether is applies to IQ, art, athletics or whatever, is simply a definition of where you start and how far you can go.
What is far more important is your determination.
Val, i believe it is just as rare for someone to have zero talent as it is for someone to be profoundly gifted. Hard work can bring someone of little talent to a level on par with the gifted if the gifted has no interest in the subject. Don't give up if you enjoy.
Which brings me to a point that Steven made that i disagree with:
the visual artist must have something to say � a reason to make a visual expression. Unfortunately, most people who wrongly imagine themselves to be artists never figure out that most basic of all basic things. Their so-called "art" is the stuff of gibberish nonsense that has no conceivable purpose whatsoever.
There is another reason for making art... the shear joy of it. For that reason alone art can exist. When i learned to draw, it was because I felt something, not because i had something to say. Art, like music, just envelops me. I don't have to care that you like it, or understand it, because truely I AM the ONLY one who understands what it means to me. The fact that some art can strike a sympathetic chord in another person, is icing.
