Once upon a time I was under the illusion that good art was made by people who somehow magically just put it together with the wave of a wand. Somehow their art was created by a mysterious mix of inspiration and innate giftedness. Then, about ten years ago, I became an art student and I learned how to draw and paint. I discovered that there were basic preparatory steps to be taken which required time, effort and practice. When I applied these basic steps, my work became more satisfying – and my confidence developed accordingly. I found that mistakes were expected and could be learned from, as long as I didn’t regard them as signs of personal failure and inadequacy! I also found that I needed to put in hours of time/practice as does anyone who is wanting to learn and master a skill. Discipline, courage, persistence and trust! All these attributes were necessary.
I recently read about a study by psychologist Anders Ericsson, who, with colleagues at Berlin’s Academy of Music, compared the performances of amateur and professional pianists. The results of the study showed that while amateur pianists practiced for about 2,000 hours over the course of their career, the professional pianists had practiced for 10,000 hours.
This leads me to believe that even if we have a relatively small amount of innate talent, if we have the interest in a goal or project and are willing to dedicate time and practice to achieving it, we have a huge chance of sparkling success.
The following words are attributed to Michelangelo, “if people knew how hard I worked to gain my mastery it wouldn’t seem so wonderful after all” (Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni : 1475 – 1564).
And Margaret Atwood shares her wisdom about this : “Any form of human creativity is a process of doing it and getting better at it. You become a writer by writing, there is no other way. So it, do it more, do it better. Fail. Fail better”. M. Atwood, (1939 -)
Maybe what I thought was mysterious and magical is actually just good old- fashioned effort, dedication and commitment. Or maybe good old-fashioned effort, dedication and commitment is the magic.