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Do you believe that talent is something you’re either born with or not ?  Check out this article, as it shows you’re already half right. 

“What if I have no talent?”

What is talent, anyway ?

Is it something you’re born with . . . or not ? One dictionary says: “A mental or physical aptitude; specific natural or acquired ability….”

A friend told me recently :”I learned to be so embarrassed by my efforts to draw or paint when young that I stopped doing it long ago.”

Another wrote :”There is so much fear that comes up for me at the thought of making art , because I had absolutely no art education at all.”

Yet another said : “Whenever we had art at school, the teacher told me to do embroidery instead.”

My first reaction was — That’s criminal !

Do you know anybody who didn’t acquire the natural ability (talent) to speak ?

Image making is as natural a human activity as speaking.

Think of prehistoric cave paintings, as fresh and lively as any drawings today. Image making and speech are both necessities to communicate with the world. Both are ways to touch, explore, and create the world.

Both verbal and visual language develop very early in life. Just as verbal language is a generic function of the human brain, so is visual thinking an organic function. All normally functioning people, having once learned to speak, go on speaking the rest of their lives. Yet, very few people continue making images.

—What happened to so many people ?

It seems one factor must be how we’ve been taught to make images as children ; to be embarrassed for not “measuring up”. (Measuring up to what ? According to who’s measure ?) In cases where we have learned to be inept and robbed of our own visual expressions, is it any wonder that we simply stop doing it at all ?

Only our dreaming minds keep making images all our lives, though we erase them on awakening.

You may be surprised to know that even “educated” and successful artists have varying amounts of fear about such things as: What is the purpose of art ? Where do you begin ? How do I know if it’s good enough ? Does this look like anything ? How can I paint like Monet ? Will anyone want to look at this ? What is my style ? What should I do next ?

—The good news is that these losses can be regained . These talents are only dormant.

Though many of us have been deprived of a significant and natural means of expression to some degree, there is hope.

—Keys to reclaiming your natural visual expression:

First, be grateful for having listened to your heart’s longing, even to have read this far, and in many cases to be already involved in some form of image making in spite of your beliefs about lacking talent. We have such fears.

Your heart is your connection to regaining your lost birthright. Above anyone else’s knowledge, your heart knows best what your visual language talents are. Learn to trust it.

* Play. Try this : Combine stuff — any stuff such as torn paper, scraps of wood, bits of cloth or string. Drop all your expectations of making any particular thing. Once upon a time, when we were very young, every moment of our day was filled with novel events and combinations of things. We toyed, we played, we broke things, we put things in irreverent places.

If we have lost our ability to play, we have lost the cutting edge of our creativity. So, when it’s safe, and there aren’t any other adults around, play !

Getting to the heart of the matter:Our thinking minds are enormously powerful; a great gift, but a double-edged sword. The mind tends to overshadow the heart so much that it may take time to develop a relationship with your heart.

Our thinking minds are enormously powerful; a great gift, but a double-edged sword. The mind tends to overshadow the heart so much that it may take time to develop a relationship with your heart.

Letting go our hold on beliefs, expectations, and preoccupation with the end product is difficult to do alone, without a safe, supportive environment. In order to leap a chasm, you need to know that it’s perfectly safe, but leap you must if you are to discover what seems to be missing.

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