I have a lot of, shall we just say, “mature” clients. They might be hobbyists-turned-pro or, more likely, professionals who were told at an earlier age that they could never make a living as an artist.
As we all know, you can take the student out of art school and stick her in accounting, but you can never take the art out of her. Almost everyone returns to art–what they were born to do!
Fear not! It’s never too late. At least it doesn’t appear that way.
An article by Daniel Pink in the current issue of Wired magazine says that genius occurs at very different times for artists. According to University of Chicago professor of economics David Galenson, some (Warhol, Picasso) make their biggest breakthroughs at an early age, while others (Cezanne, Pollock) are older.
Galenson also delves into writers and poets. Take a look for yourself.
1 thought on “What kind of [art] genius are you?”
Thanks so much for the link to the article on David Galenson’s Theory of Creativity. There, I found an answer to much that has perplexed me about my creative life over the last many years. Always, I was told I had to plan, had to have a vision, then realize that vision. I couldn’t then, and I can’t now. What I do, I do to discover what I’m doing, and that has always left me feeling a little unenlightened. Now, I know why. Now I know why I grope toward perfecting an image, step by stumbling step; why the slick do-this-then-do-that technique articles do nothing (well, very little) at all for me. I was *always* last in art classes to finish a project. Mine was *always* crude and ultimately unfinished by deadline. Turns out I am an experimental innovator. I’m a tortise with no hair.