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I read a post recently talking about people learning to be artists. The point they were making was that the 'taste' to judge good from bad is inherent in a good

I read a post recently talking about people learning to be artists. The point they were making was that the 'taste' to judge good from bad is inherent in a good artist, but the ability to produce good art develops over a long time. That means that artists spend a lot of time producing work that their taste declares as below standard. It's not until you've been working for a while that your ability catches up with your judgement. This lag, causes a lot of people to give up concluding that they're not that good.

disqard 6y ago
Perhaps you were referring to this Ira Glass quote [0], maybe not. Either way, this is a good thought to share, so I'll link it here. [0] https://gointothestory.blcklst.com/the-gap-by-ira-glass-9651a750408f https://gointothestory.blcklst.com/the-gap-by-ira-glass-9651...
- rkangel 6y ago
  That is exactly the quote I was looking for, thank you. I promise to bookmark it this time!
jancsika 6y ago
> The point they were making was that the 'taste' to judge good from bad is inherent in a good artist, but the ability to produce good art develops over a long time. Taste develops as a function of accumulating knowledge, preferably from making art. > It's not until you've been working for a while that your ability catches up with your judgement. So if you grant for the moment what I wrote above, you'll see there's an alternate way of thinking. That is, if an artist is comfortable making art at an introductory level, their taste will be refined the more art they make. That refined taste feeds back into a virtuous cycle of making more and better art which further refines the test. Alternatively, the artists you describe are reinforcing frustration at nearly every level (my own experience being such artists eventually are unable to break out of that frustrated, self-critical mindset).

disqard 6y ago

Perhaps you were referring to this Ira Glass quote [0], maybe not. Either way, this is a good thought to share, so I'll link it here. [0] https://gointothestory.blcklst.com/the-gap-by-ira-glass-9651a750408f https://gointothestory.blcklst.com/the-gap-by-ira-glass-9651...

rkangel 6y ago
That is exactly the quote I was looking for, thank you. I promise to bookmark it this time!

jancsika 6y ago

> The point they were making was that the 'taste' to judge good from bad is inherent in a good artist, but the ability to produce good art develops over a long time. Taste develops as a function of accumulating knowledge, preferably from making art. > It's not until you've been working for a while that your ability catches up with your judgement. So if you grant for the moment what I wrote above, you'll see there's an alternate way of thinking. That is, if an artist is comfortable making art at an introductory level, their taste will be refined the more art they make. That refined taste feeds back into a virtuous cycle of making more and better art which further refines the test. Alternatively, the artists you describe are reinforcing frustration at nearly every level (my own experience being such artists eventually are unable to break out of that frustrated, self-critical mindset).