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Raw Talent
By Deborah | November 14, 2007
“Every time we teach a child something, we prevent him from inventing it himself.”
Jean Piaget
As children we start out with no inhibitions about what we think or what we draw. We believe everything is good. Our early drawings of a house, a tree, and the dog down the street are all wonderful works of art until someone tells us differently.
It would be hard to imagine an artist growing up today without criticism of some type, but imagine for a moment that a person could be protected from all outside influences. What would their work look like? Would it become stale and uninteresting without outside input? Or, would it be the ultimate in pure, raw talent, showing us something we’ve never seen before?
I’ve come close to seeing raw talent over the years. One artist, in fact, came in the other day that came close. He lives out on a ranch far away from the rest of the world. He has never received any formal art training, yet his drawings are exceptional. I noticed, as he described how he created his work, that his approach was unorthodox yet every bit effective. I also notice the unusual level of detail he insists on before releasing his work to the market. He isn’t worried about whether his work will be deemed historically important, or rushing to get to market quickly. He competes with no one but himself.
I often wonder if most artists have become overly susceptible to the influence of a very fickle art market, and that in the process we are recycling the same concepts over and over again to the point of homogenizing creativity. The art world is full of opinions and critics with great influence, yet no personal artistic skill to support their opinions. In listening to these critics we end up creating a lot of ‘stuff’—but truly raw talent—now that’s something to see. If only there was a way for artists to forget what they have learned from the critics, and return to the days of childhood when they could freely act on each and every impulse to create. If only raw talent could be rekindled, imagine the art that could be created.
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