I flipped through my childhood sketchbook recently. Or rather, I leafed through a dozen drawings my mother saved from my year in kindergarten. Trust me, they’re amazing. The stunning command of color and composition for the units on “Helpers” and “Transportation” is absolutely groundbreaking? Astounding talent? A total bore?
If you’re a baby boomer with a stash of childhood scribbles, dig them out. See how they stack up against the work in The New York Times’ Juvenilia, What Artists See When They Look Back at Work They Made in Their Youth. Read how youthful versions of Deborah Roberts, Marina Abramovic, Luc Tuymans and Do Ho Suh broke onto the art scene with school yard scribbles.
So what about your childhood artistry? Did you find evidence of an astounding talent or a total bore? If you were lucky enough to have a mom who treasured your efforts you might check where you started out compared to where you landed. Did you eventually become a full fledged working artist or did you apply your talents elsewhere?
The New York Times piece begs some key questions we all ask our scribbling, striving selves: Are some people artists from birth while others are left to gaze in from the cold?. Can anyone through diligence and perseverance overcome their creative deficits enough to gain admission to the art world? Is talent the same as creativity?
Is astounding talent predictable from childhood or are exceptional artists made, not born?
The New York Times asked the four well known visual artists above to assess their early childhood art efforts. If you’ve ever picked up a pen, brush or pencil, it’s a sobering view of the gifted crowd from the cheap seats .
Astounding Talent! (See Below)
According to the New York Times, when Luc Tuymans was 7 or 8 years old, his teacher assigned the class a drawing about their summer holiday. Tuymans chose garbage collecting as his subject and titled it “My Big Vacation.” His drawing shows an alive street scene featuring two trash collectors hard at work, their iconic truck and facing row houses. The rendering comes complete with single point perspective and realistic figures and a clear storyline. Twenty-eight years later Tuymans would paint Flemish Village, a lush street study of color and architecture beautifully proportioned.
My kindergarten teacher assigned a unit on “Helpers” for art class. My policeman “helper” features thick and bulbous limbs, way too many gold buttons, eyes without pupils and zero narrative.
New York Times interviewer Julia Halperin tells us the artist Do Ho Suh was unable to satisfy the school yard demand for his drawings. He perfected a tiger mask based on a Japanese anime character. My elementary school friend Ray Lebert could flawlessly copy SURFtoons characters from a 60s era comic book about California surf culture. A thorough internet search seems to show Ray never took his talent further than the schoolroom.
Marina Abramovic’s teenage years in Communist Yugoslavia generated a fascination with car crashes, writes Halperin. Abramovic’s 1963 painting Truck Accident (1) is light on details but the expressive energy and masterful brushwork scream the mayhem she witnessed. Thirty four years later she premiered Balkan Baroque at the Museum of Modern Art, a performance work where she attempted to wash the blood from a pile of cow bones.
For my unit on “Farm Life” I drew a cow with its head cocked crosswise as though suffering a neck snap, no visible leg joints and a small red appendage where its utter should be.
Deborah Roberts’ drawing of a childhood friend shows a pensive child sketched in pencil where the artist clearly has command of their materials. She gives us a tender portrait of a vulnerable young man trusting the artist to be faithful and kind.
In her collages from 2023 and 2024 Roberts returns again to children and their vulnerability; this time through mixed media and collage
My childhood sketches include a figure with rouged cheeks, a red skull cap, a polka dot blouse and a floor length skirt. It’s titled “MF.” This could be my five year old’s thoughtful and compassionate drawing of someone in transition but I doubt it.
Do our early creative efforts presage future success in the visual arts or is success less about innate talent and more about what you do with what you get at birth?
Much was made of Marla Olmstead’s talent to paint brilliantly at age four but controversy lingered over the source of her talent and the quality of her work. Some critics claimed she evidenced genius level work for her abstract expression Others suggested an overzealous parent and a self-serving gallerist may have played roles in her success.
Agreed, many of my earliest drawing efforts would be deemed a total bore by gallery goers. What does one do if the compulsion to create is there but the talent is missing from their earliest efforts?
A recent piece in the Guardian claims, “Genius cannot be taught but skills can.” It’s a fair point. Artists like Abramovic and Tuymans were clearly gifted by their parents with a serious leg up when it came to skill level. Plus perhaps genius level creativity.
My blog post from May of this year takes an in depth look at what famous writers have to say about creativity, genius and success in the art world. These authors merit a closer look if you want to supplant your innate talent with some post grad learning opportunities on creativity
Jerry Saltz in his book, How to Be An Artist, does a marvelous job of erasing the talent issue altogether. He writes, “You may fear that people will think you’re abnormal, dull, untalented. When I work , my mind races with doubts: None of it's any good. It makes no sense. His solution to self doubt is simple: “Don’t worry...the faster your art makes sense, the faster people will lose interest. Let go of being ‘“good”’ Start thinking about creating.”
Saltz emphasizes creativity over talent. Technique, the sort of vanishing point perspective and perfect portions Tuymans managed at age 8 can be learned by anyone. Creativity is imagination applied to expression and can only be suggested.
Robert Henri, a turn of the century writer and painter, takes Saltz's argument further still. In his much revered text, The Art Spirit, he writes: “Instead of establishing a vast stock of technical tricks, it would be far wiser to develop creative power by constant search for means particular to motive already in mind.”
“Develop the creative power” Hmmmm.
Anna Huff, assistant professor of digital arts at Hamilton College was tasked by the college president to share how creativity manifests itself in her interactions with students.
In part, Huff wrote: “I start courses by telling my students they are tasked with locating their voices with a shared cultural framework. Creativity is inherently connected to their ability to disrupt and then resynthesize ideas they encounter or may even take for granted.
At a recent show in Tucson Arizona artists offered their take on playing cards from Loteria, the traditional Mexican board game. Artists created their version of a random choice card in whatever style they preferred. Multiples of the same card were possible.
Two different artists both drew No. 26, “El Negrito.” The first artist produced a technically excellent representation not too dissimilar from the design of the original card, a dark-skinned dapper gent in suit, straw hat and cane.
The second artist showed the same character but prone, face down under the heel of a police officer kitted out with a face shield, vest, handgun and billy club.
The first artist gave us something unique, the second a creative turn on the familiar that said something troubling about the impact of politics on culture, tradition and human rights.
Perhaps one of the best arguments against the theory that some people are gifted with talent and others are left empty-handed comes from David Bayles and Ted Orland in their book Art & Fear. They write: “...talent israrely distinguishable, over the long run, from perseverance and lots of hard work.
On the other hand there’s creativity.
I have a couple of drawings in my kindergarten collected works I suspect hint at creativity in the making more than technical talent. The first shows a screaming black head, mouth agape with a circle of teeth and a bright red tongue flame. I’m wearing a tophat labeled with my name and my arms are outstretched.
In the second, there’s a robot-like figure drawn all in black and again there’s bright red flame projecting up its very square head. Inside the square is a skeleton with its mouth drawn in a tight grimace, its arms raised as if to surrender.
A Total Bore? Really?
My technique in these two drawings is literally elementary but the creativity continues to enthrall and captivate me even at 74.
Here’s the lesson I’ve found for myself in drawings I made almost 70 years ago: focus on the creative and let talent or technique take care of itself. Technique is available to learn via so many avenues today. Superior creativity is challenging and rare; a lifelong goal.
It’s dark out there,
I make fun.