What art do you appreciate, but have little talent for?

Cafe Society
1

I appreciate visual art quite a bit, but I have little talent for it. I have quite a bit of talent for poetry, and can at least see how someone could, with the right inspirations, write “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” or some such work. I am alright at playing guitar, though I do not think I have enough musical talent that I could have ever been a truly world class musician. But visual art? I just cannot even imagine painting even a simple portrait of the sort you might see by Rembrandt. I just don’t see how a human being can dip a brush into paint and get that sort of image to come out. How is that even…possible?

What art seems most mysterious to you? What makes you think “I don’t see how one can even make that?”

2

Music, poetry, paintings, sculpture, literature, cuisine, photography, dance. And lots of others.

3

I think most people at least can conceive of being a gifted singer, no matter how horrible their natural voice is. And I can at least convince myself that with lots and lots of practice I could have been a good horn player.

But sculpture, how the f*** does that work?

4

Pretty much all of them. I have a strong design sense and some talent for the mechanics of making a drawing or painting, but dropped out of art school because I wasn’t driven the way many of my classmates were. I never woke up at 3:00am with an idea that I had to go immediately to the studio and make into a painting.

Of other arts I’d say I’m most drawn to guitar music, all styles. I enjoy other types of music but the things that make my ears sort of perk up tend to be guitar pieces. Double dose of awe for people who can play the guitar and sing on key at the same time.

I’m flabbergasted by any sort of music, really. Bach chorales, tight vocal harmonies, anything.

Also, “old world” craftsmanship in architecture. Molded plaster medallions and moulding, carved masonry, and intricate wrought iron are all beautiful to me, and seem to have slipped away. I was in a church this weekend that was built between 1809 and 1815. There was all sorts of carving and tracery. It was beautiful. All the more beautiful to me because it was all made without any sort of power tools.

5

Humor. I adore comedy in most forms, but I can’t tell or even construct a joke to save my life.

6

Drawing and sketching.

I have a Master’s in Art (3-D sculpture with an emphasis on metals and jewelry). I have worked in clay and wood and every type of metal and fibers. I make a lot of jewelry. But when someone comes to me for a commission and asks me to sketch out an idea, my scratchings look like a three-year old did it. I have never drawn out any of my ideas for pieces I create – I just get my hands on the material and start to create. I cut and bend and forge and weave and solder, but I can’t draw out what the idea is before I create it.

7

I’m a music major who sees some extremely complex and difficult compositions, and wondered, “How in the hell do did they do that??”

My grandpa is a painter and sculptor. I too wonder how in the hell he does that.

8

Can’t sing. Can’t dance. Can’t play a musical instrument.

9

I took art classes all through high school, and at times I have done some painting in oils. Really crappy results.

I also enjoy writing. When my wife was alive I kept a journal of all our vacations, and was very happy to have kept them. I got the chance to indulge my writing skills, such as they are, and realized that journals were the extent of my writing skills, as I could not produce a plot if my life was on the line.

10

I can pretty much understand the skill involved in most of the arts . . . at least I’ve dabbled in most of them enough to get the basics. But I have no idea how architects who lived centuries ago could design a complex cathedral that is still standing after all this time. I’d think that all that weight would cause the ground to settle. I’d think the Leaning Tower of Pisa would be the rule, not the exception.

I know, the buildings we see are the ones that ***didn’t ***fall over . . . but still.

And traditional stone sculpture. How did Michelangelo take a block of marble, and remove everything that was ***not ***David?

11

I so wanted to go into musical theatre, but I cannot sing or dance.

I wish someone had told me why it’s called show BUSINESS when I was younger. I would have been good at the BUSINESS end of it.

12

I can paint a little, have even sold a few, but portraiture is something I’ll never be good at. I devoted an entire summer to it, and that ended up being a wasted summer.

Here’s the deal: Paint a picture of a tree and make one branch a little off, it’s still a tree. Paint a picture of a face and make something a little off, it’s a massive birth defect.

13

Most of them. I love theatre, and have some dramatic talents - I run an amateur theatre company, and I act, direct and write plays. I love music, and sing in a band occasionally. But art, dance, opera, photography? I don’t have the first clue, yet I appreciate them all.