So which will get you further, hard work or talent?
Is this even a legitimate question? One thing’s sure – using “lack of talent” as an excuse for not working hard isn’t going to get anyone far.
Thomas Edison believed that “genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.” However, Edison never actually said those words, and the credit for them should go to a woman named Kate Sanborn who expressed the idea first.
It’s surely true that sustained creativity, the kind needed to build a career, doesn’t happen without hard work. However, it seems to me that 99% of the time, what we call talent (or “genius,” if you prefer) is more like a high-octane combination of imagination, intelligence, knowledge, luck, and fearless, stubborn persistence (aka a combination of patience and drive). So, realistically (in the vast majority of cases), the whole notion of talent as some pre-existing ability you are either “born with” or not seems to me quite suspect.
Natasha Isenhour, Left on the Right, pastel, 12×16 in
If you define “talent” as potential, like a seed that needs to be nourished, I’m on board. But will the results be so different between someone to whom it comes easy and someone who has to work harder (even, maybe, a lot harder) if they arrive at roughly the same place?
As far as the Edison quote goes, according to Forbes Magazine, in the early 1890’s an academic named Kate Sanborn delivered a series of lectures on the topic “What is Genius?” and it was she who first defined genius as a mix of “inspiration” and “perspiration.” Her words were, “Talent is perspiration.” Now, “if she provided a ratio,” says Forbes, “it was never recorded.”
Sanborn was lambasted by a newspaper editorial for “getting a lot of attention” for stating something so obvious. Nevertheless, when Edison was later asked for his definition of genius, he is said to have answered, “2% is genius and 98% is hard work.” Close but no cigar? But wait! “When probed on whether genius was inspired, he replied, “Bah! Genius is not inspired. Inspiration is perspiration.” That’s pretty darn close to Sanborn and conclusive proof if you ask me.
Put it down to one more in a long line of quotes by women later misattributed to famous men.
Speaking of quotes, “Work harder than anyone else in the room,” says a painter I know, or words to that effect. By sheer force of effort and daily dedication, this artist has built a wildly successful career from scratch. But that doesn’t mean you have to be “perspiring” 24/7, just “working” – otherwise known, by working folks, as “dreaming.”
It does mean, however, that you can’t avoid actually doing the work because fear of “not being talented enough” has you procrastinating on your phone.
“I have been told I play the cello with the ease of a bird flying,” wrote Pablo Casals. “I do not know with how much effort a bird learns to fly, but I know what effort has gone into my cello. What seems ease of performance comes from the greatest labor… There is of course no substitute for work. I myself practiced constantly, as I have all my life…. Almost always, facility results only from maximum effort. Art is the product of labor.” -Pablo Casals.
Roos Schuring, Soft Sunrise, oil 9x 11 in
Sometimes, though, what looks like laziness to an outsider (and even sometimes feels like it to the painter!) is really a kind of inner creative ferment, a percolation process that can’t be hurried.
Painter and writer John Carlson, of Carlson’s Guide to Landscape Painting fame (if you want to know landscape painting and you don’t know this book, seriously look it up. You’re welcome.) says that “the true artist works rather in great gusts of effort, and in smaller gusts of apparent lassitude. He is not lying about ‘waiting for some inspiration.’ He is in the travail of the dreamer entering into expression.”
Now when you see the artist sitting thoughtfully before a blank canvas, Carlson says, know that this is work of a very high order indeed. “Realize,” he says, “what huge gulfs exist” between us and “a thing of dreams.”
Here’s to the hard workers, the patient and persistent, “for we are the music makers and we are the dreamers of dreams.”
Splash Into Plein Air Live
Lisa Skelly, Emerald Surf, Soft Pastel on Pastelbord, 11 x 14 in
All of the women whose work appears in this edition of Inside Art will be giving demos and sharing their techniques in Plein Air Live, the largest ever online art learning event. Secure a seat and prepare to ratchet up your plein air game from the comfort of your own home, March 6-8, 2024, with Plein Air Live.
