Practice Makes Talent

On how practice is infinitely more important than talent, and why it's paramount to create even if (especially if!) you're bad at something.

I love love love being inspired by other women; it is my drug of choice. I spent last weekend with my grandma, one of my favorite people in the whole world who is also my number one fan. She is (to me) a feminist icon, diva extraordinaire, and an incredible artist to boot. She is insanely creative and colorful and inspiring to many, and I always assumed that she was just born like that.

Reader, she was not.

Though the more left brained among us (me) would like to believe that it’s black and white, something you either have or don’t have, creativity is a muscle that needs to be exercised. Creativity is just…creating. And my grandma reminded me of that this past weekend.

After she retired, my grandma (@coffeechic1 on Instagram btw in case you want to follow her artwork) took a painting class at a local art studio. She’s always been a colorful and creative person, sewing her own clothing and making jewelry, among other artistic pursuits, but paint was a new medium for her. It’s been an honor to watch her painting journey and to see her work evolve. What I think I love most about her process is that she actively tries not to learn the “rules.” She creates with intuition, feel, and for the love of creating. She denies that she has any inherent talent and credits her success (my word, not hers) to the hours she spends practicing. And you can see proof of that in the evolution her work and in how the community responds to it. Since her first class in 2012, she’s been featured in multiple art shows and, maybe more impressively, become a fixture in her community.

pieces features in her current art show

When I took my first pottery class, I had never touched clay before, unless play-doh counts. I didn’t know the first thing about the process of making ceramics, but I wanted build community, create something, and try something new. The first mug I made was comically bad, wonky and lopsided, and the handle was level with the bottom of the cup. It was quite possibly the worst one in the class, but it was mine. I had made it with my own two hands. Throughout the course, I got better, and I’ve since made some pieces I’m really proud of, but I am very much still a beginner.

my first mug on the left, my second (espresso cup) on the right

It’s easy to compare yourself to the experts you’re learning from or that you see online, but it’s hard to remember that you’re comparing your beginner level work with their practiced work. Because natural talent (if that even exists) can’t do everything. The people who are the best at anything — singing, writing, painting, etc. — got that way by doing that thing over and over again, not by being born with a natural gift.

I am absolutely one of those people who gets frustrated when they aren’t immediately good at something, and I am constantly fighting the urge to be perfect, but that’s exactly why I think creative pursuits are good for me. It forces me to get a little messy and be bad at something while I learn to be good at it. And it’s fun! Writing this blog and working with clay are both very low stakes ways of feeding my creativity without being graded or with the risk of failure. The only way I can fail is by not doing it.

I think a lot of us are waiting around for inspiration to strike, for talent to arrive, to find that one thing that we’re innately good at, but that doesn’t exist. We’re good at the things we put time and effort into. In a society based on instant gratification and shortened attention spans, it’s resistance to do something slowly and intentionally. To get good at something, not with the intent to capitalize on it, but because it’s good for your soul to do so.

I started this blog to get back into writing. I’ve long since considered myself A Writer though I’ve sometimes gone weeks, months, years, without writing anything more than the occasional journal entry or to-do list. But I want to improve, and that means that I have to actually do it, and so do you! I know, this news was devastating for me as well, but it really is the only way. Practice doesn’t make perfect, but it is the pursuit of perfection that makes us better at things.

Maybe she’s born with it, maybe she’s put a lot of time and effort into relentlessly pursuing it until she’s reached a skill level wherein she can make something difficult look easy.