If you are an artist: never EVER question if you’re talented.

If you want to be an artist, then you’re for sure talented! And talent is the only thing that matters. If you’re talented, then you don’t need to worry about anything else. All of your worries and fears are coming from a lack of confidence in your own abilities.

Here’s a little story:

“The first man to compare the cheeks of a girl to a rose was obviously a poet; the first to repeat it was possibly an idiot.”

– Oscar Wilde

As artists, we’re never satisfied with our work. We’re always pushing ourselves to be better. We’re constantly comparing our current creations to past pieces, and we’re always asking “do my skills measure up?” We’re always struggling to make something new and interesting, or at least hope we are.

Thing is, if you don’t have confidence in your skills as an artist, what’s going to push you forward? You have to believe in yourself and your abilities. If you don’t think you can do anything, how are you going to even try? Not everyone is born with talent, but anyone who wants it can find it within themselves. They just need the right motivation.

I’m not saying there won’t be challenges. Any artist will tell you that creating art is hard work. But if you’re not confident in your abilities then no one will ever know how good you can be.

“You have no talent,” he said.

“What do you mean?” I asked. “I’m a great artist.”

He laughed, and shook his head. “You’re not serious,” he said.

I blinked, and looked at him with confusion. That was when I realized what had just happened: the most important conversation of my life, and I hadn’t even seen it coming.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I’m a writer.

I mean, it’s kind of obvious. I write all the time, and at least some of the time that I’m not writing, I’m thinking about writing.

I don’t know how one could not notice that I’m a writer.

But anyway, even though people see me as a writer, I have often been accused of lacking confidence in my own work. Which is weird to me because…well…I mean…look at it? It’s awesome!

Everyone who reads it seems to think so. Like, even when it gets rejected from contests or magazines or whatever, the feedback I get is always like: “This piece is really good. I’d just like to see more from you before you submit it.”

Or when someone tells me they enjoyed something that I wrote for their blog, they’re always like: “Thanks! Because your stuff was really good…but…” (which is code for: “But we didn’t pay you!”)

And then there’s my agent who says that she loves every story that I send her and would love to represent me if she didn’t already represent famous writers whose names rhyme with “Herman Fince” and

The first time I saw a Salvador Dali painting was at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. It was a spooky, surrealist dreamscape called The Persistence of Memory (1931). I am a pretty reserved guy and it freaked me out.

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Name:My Experience with the Art World