prodigy, 2

[egypturnash]

Lots of interesting thoughts on yesterday's entry about the seeming lack of visual arts prodigies.

Here's a thought I had regarding the lack, after going through more replies than I thought there were (LJ's being slow on the notification mails): To be a good artist, first you must learn to see like an adult; then you must learn to see like a child again.

And these things have to happen in sequence; by their nature, they can't overlap. And they take time.

Comments

[kamenkyote.livejournal.com]

I was even thinking of the fear of a blank canvas, fear of making things perfect, which in a way, feeds back into your "think like a child" point. Really, I believe one wants to get to a point in one's artistic career where one doesn't really "think" at all.

For geniuses, I'd point to Picasso at least and perhaps Hockney, though not so much for his own work as much as his dissertations on art and the viewing of it.

Though he'd disagree with me, I think there's genius in Goodwin's work, but it's something that's really most appreciable when you see him do a piece from start to finish. He just -gets- it, and that's before any sort of real training.