Thursday Challenge: Skill -

"Skill"
digital collage by Mick Mather

What a perfect opportunity I have to debunk a myth with this week's Thursday Challenge theme, skill. The untruth? That artists are imbued with their talent from somewhere else - usually that means from "on high". In reality, art is a skill like any other learned behavior that can be taught, practiced and accomplished. To me and a few of my close friends who are also artists, the God-given talent is what we call "fire in the belly". That fire is nothing more than the powerful desire to pursue a goal until achieved. The dichotomy of such achievement, for the individual artist, is that no matter how accomplished, the work is still not good enough. So, we continue to struggle with our creations, with our level of skill, with our tools and with our desire to express our own vision. At the end of the day, if we have a moment of satisfaction, that's enough. Sort of. :)