I thought that for today's blog post, we could discuss the "Nature vs Nurture" debate. Reason being that I saw two threads this week up on one of my social media sites about this topic. This post may cause drowsiness so I would suggest grabbing a pillow and your favorite blanket before reading on.
Before I begin, let me just say that this is my opinion only, based on my own experience, your opinion may vary. Feel free to chime in, in the comment section below this post.
I suppose this could be a "heavy" topic and I also realize that with our limited human knowledge, we may never have a true answer to this question. But here goes..........Are we born with artistic talent, straight out of the womb or, do we just develop a certain talent. My opinion is a bit of both and I will tell you why I feel this way.
My mother passed away when I was seven months old. Obviously, I never got to know her and I have very little knowledge of her still to this day. My grandmother on my fathers side, took care of me when I was little and when I entered kindergarten, my teacher, Mrs. Melton, (I still remember her name), discovered that I could do two things really well, better than the other children in the classroom. One of which was, I could read.
Mrs. Melton would call all of us up to the front of the room, have us sit cross legged on the carpet and she would have me read to the class every morning. I don't remember learning how to read. I don't know if my grandmother taught me to read. I do not remember ever being read to when I was little, I just know that I loved to read.
The other thing that was discovered about me was that I could draw. My drawings were primitive at best but unlike the others kids, they were detailed and more thought out. As kids, we would all draw pictures of our house, you know, with a lollipop tree and a smiling sun in the sky that would look kinda like this.............
Which is all fine and good but then I would draw something that looked kinda like this................
As you can see, I already had a basic knowledge of line and angles and form.
I was always drawing as a kid and as time went on, I got better and better at it. When I got into high school I was sketching very elaborate drawings.
Now, this story wraps back around to my mother. When I was about seven years old, I found out that my mother had been an artist. She was a painter. I went to my aunts house, one of my mothers sisters, in San Diego, El Cajon to be exact. My aunt showed me a bedroom in her house where my mother had painted roses on the ceiling. I vividly remember lying on the floor, in that room, staring up onto that ceiling at those beautifully rendered roses, knowing that my mother who I never knew, had created those and I knew, then and there that I too, was an artist.
Fast forward a few years and then I found out that not only had my mother been an artist but, so had most of her family. I had come from a very long line of artists. Did I actually inherit this ability?
So my consensus is...........It's a bit of both, nature and nurture. I taught art. I have taught people to draw who told me that they couldn't even draw a stick figure. yes, it CAN be taught. Is it intuitive as well? are we born with this talent?.... I feel we are born with a propensity (there's another BIG word again), or in other words, a passion or basic instinct towards a certain talent, be it visual art, music, dance whatever. It's in us but it still needs to be nurtured, to be developed and in order for that to happen, we have to WANT it. We have to work for it. Some may have to work a little harder than others, yes but, we ALL have it in us.
Well..............That's it. My opinion for what it's worth. Please, if you want to voice your opinion, I would love to know what y'all think as well.
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