We all have an artist within us

I strongly believe we all have an artist within us. An artist first needs to learn a skill. I long ago stopped believing in” natural talent”. Some of us might be better at picking up those skills, but all of us need to put the work in. And the harder I worked on my craft over the years,” luckier” I got, and more people started to call me” talented”.

Learn the skills

If you think you have no musical bone in your body, I can tell you-you are wrong. We all can learn an instrument and train our ears. It’s just that many of us have never used that part of our vast brains. And if you have never used the” musical” part of your mind, it will take some time to find your way there, but hard work will get you there. The same how’s with pretty much anything in this world.

Get your head out of the way

But as an artist, learning those skills is only half of the battle. The next challenge is to forget those skills. You need to get your own head out of the way. You need to be able to imagine, to see what is not there, but could be. It’s almost like childlike imagination, mixed with the skills you acquired over the years. This is the big challenge I work on daily.

See what is not there

For example. When I was standing where I took this photo, I saw a scene that due to the time of the year and vegetation made me see a frame where I could imagine myself being worried about dipping my legs into the water, as the alligators might drag me in. But to be honest, the biggest threat would have been the giant rats roaming around the Grand Canal. ?

J.P.