My uncle taught me to read when I was 5 or 6. I never attended kindergarten and at 7 years of age went straight to first grade. At first grade I could read as well as I read now. At age 14 my mother helped me get a library card and the library became my haven and my heaven. At age 21 I had read 500 books (I know because I kept records of everything I read until then).
In college I took English and Spanish Literatures. My Masters degree (unfinished) was in Romance languages (those that derive from Latin). I currently know 7 languages.
This introduction is missing an important element: Art. Art was not in my life at all. I wanted to be a writer. I never thought about Art at all. I knew about Chopin and Beethoven, Lin Yutang and quite a few Brazilian writers. Matisse and Picasso were unknowns to me.
One day in the mid-Sixties I had the urge to buy a couple of small canvas boards and a few paints and quite un-self consciously painted an Old-Town Jerusalem landscape, then some surreal trees and nothing more. Fast forward quite a few years and somehow, out of the blue, I find myself interested in taking painting classes. I find a small art school and become a regular, dedicated student. Once a week I’d paint in school and create a couple of paintings every week end at home. This was my diet for a few years. Some of my paintings sold wet out of the school easel, others at art auctions sponsored by local art galleries. Still, I never intended to be a “serious painter”, someone with a career in the arts. For ten years I painted non-stop, took classes regularly but did not consider myself anything other than a hobbyist.
One day, at the end of some ten years, I came to realize that Art was central to my well being and that without it I’d be unmoored, unbalanced.
So, as an artist, was I made or born? Does an artist have to have an innate talent or can it be developed? Is talent important or is grit what pulls us through?
Angela Duckworth in her book, “Grit”, implies that grit is more important than talent and can take us farther. Talent without grit will falter while grit and passion will keep us going against all odds.
Can a person acquire grit or is it a natural characteristic that one either has or does not? These are interesting questions that can keep us occupied for quite some time.
In the meantime, here I am, more than 40 yers later, more passionate about painting than ever before. It’s like loving your husband when you marry him and, at the end of 50 years, loving him even more, warts and all.
In any case, how important is it to know if an artist is made or born? I believe it’s much more important to see the passion, the grit, the dedication of an artist to her craft. And this dedication can be seen in her work, in the risks and searches, in the aha! moments and the occasional dark nights of the soul.
My relationship with Art was not love at first sight but it turned out to be the best, the most perfect marriage.