#artstr #motivational #bobross
I definitely agree that there's a lot to be said for "happy accidents" in the world of art and creative thinking. But the last part of the Ross quote is dangerously false: "Anything that you're willing to practice, you can do." I, for example, am never going to be a competition-level sprinter. (I don't have the requisite skeletal structure.) And LaKwanda and Jamal are never going to write a concerto to equal the least of Vivaldi's (or even Vivaldi's unknown students), nor revolutionize (or even understand) physics, nor build anything remotely equaling the Temple of Artemis (nor, probably, even a plastic model thereof). They don't have the brain structure. We do no one a favor by pretending otherwise.
Discussion
Well if you're thinking in such levels, you're tossing quite big branches in front of your feet yourself. I'll never sell out theatre and am still a singer. I'll never sell my paintings for big money, yet they hang in our apartment. We're talking hobby and happiness, not medals.
I think it's great to do such things for personal satisfaction -- I do that sort of thing myself. But I think it's dangerously wrong to imply, as Ross did, that all people are somehow "equal." They're not.
I don't see that there and won't defend such a counterpoint. I've however seen many genial little musicians to be outrun by people who practiced. Nearly all of them, really. Age 14, poof and fuck you if you're not working hard for the rest of your life. Picking up hobby that's countering your capabilities also seems naive and silly, not an achievement.π€ We don't owe anybody anything and don't need to prove ourselves in such stressing way.
I am delighted to see that you acknowledge that differing people have differing capabilities.
Who are LaKwanda and Jamal?
Members of the human population group statistically most likely to burn down their own neighborhoods, or do this kind of thing: