Broom Hilda by Russell Myers for November 16, 2024

You’re a real killjoy, you know that, Gaylord??

Dunno about “great”,Broomie, but you can be better than you were yesterday. Go ahead, paint something.

Some “artists” have become very famous despite a lack of talent. Jackson Pollack comes to mind, for example.

Is that the guy that throws open cans of paint at the canvas???!!!

If you can sell it, you have talent.

Start practicing. By the time you’ve used about $30,000 worth of supplies, you’ll have talent.

I had a lovely art teacher at school wo could never bring herself to say anything negative about anyone. I have ZERO artistic talent and my drawings were awful. One day she looked at my work and after deliberating what to say to me all she could say was “well, at least you always have lovely colouring pencils.” That was me. All the gear, but no idea.

Anybody can learn, you just need to be willing to put in the practice. (Just like with singing.)

I took art for 8 years and I drew the same picture of a house over the years I added clouds, windows, chimney, sidewalk and a walkway to sidewalk, all in stick figuers

Go for it Broomie, we need more art in the world, doesn’t matter if it’s good or bad.

Shall I tell my “Art” story again? Scroll past if you read it before…A NYC Gallery had a show in which one of the pieces was a banana, duct-taped to the wall. It was priced at $150,000! Predictably, someone took the banana down and ate it. In the news story, the curator said “The value of the piece is not in the banana, as that would have inevitably rotted. The value of the piece is in the certificate of authenticity!” That’s right. $150 grand for a piece of paper saying the banana taped to the wall was the idea of an “artist.” This is why art is such a crock.

VanGogh’s early paintings were awful.

I was lousy at art too. My daughter says (bless her heart) that I now paint with yarn, embroidery thread and diamond dots. She, however, abounds with artistic talent that she does not use any more because her spouse disapproves.

Art is like beauty, all in the eye of the beholder, Broomie. Don’t throw away your palette just yet! If someone could fall in love with the paintings of Picasso, there’s someone who’s bound to like your work. Unfortunately, most artist are only appreciated after death. Artists are never recognized in their lifetime

Talent is a high percentage of what’s required. But we’ll never know now.

I once studied guitar. Until my teacher told me that it was ok. It was more important to want to learn than it was to have talent. I have up and moved on.

When I retired I took up wood carving. I joined a club to learn how. I’ve been carving for ten years. I have absolutely no talent. But everyone in the club is always encouraging me. And I do carve better than I did. I’ll never be a Master. I’m barely an intermediate. But I really enjoy it and my family loves getting my gifts. It doesn’t need to be lucrative, it doesn’t need to be good. You just have to enjoy doing it.

In a world… where Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons are celebrated, what’s the value of talent?

I was always the stick figure kind of artist but when I was gifted with a guitar by my mom I knew I found something that stirred my soul. You have to find your own path, draw, paint, play an instrument, sing, dance or write. Believe me, you will know when it happens.