Creative, do you love it? Then keep going. (daily video)

“Talent is a pursued interest. Anything that you’re willing to practice, you can do."
—Bob Ross

It's not about whether or not you're super talented.

It's about whether or not you love this enough to keep trying.

ROUGH TRANSCRIPT

"Talent is a pursued interest. Anything you're willing to work at, you can do." Bob Ross was right. Welcome back, creatives. My name is Ruthanne Reid. I'm an author and stroke survivor. And I'm here to help you get out of block and into a daily habit of creation.

Bob Ross, who was the previous generation's saint. Uh just a fantastic person all around. Someone who really helped humans figure out how to be creative, how to work past mistakes, just a really solid guy. The main thing he did in his show is he would paint live and it would just be who knew what subject and he would be guiding you so that you could do it right along with him. You could literally do what he was doing and learn to paint.

And in the process of that, you'd screw up. He would screw up and he'd go, "Well, it's a happy little accident." And he would turn that mistake into something beautiful. It's a simple concept, but I don't hear a lot of people talking about it anymore.

Creative, your art is a learned skill. You may have talent and that's nice, but nobody rolls out of bed and does an opera. You have to work at it. You have to learn the techniques. You have to practice and develop your own voice. You know that sort of thing. The correlation for this is very important. You see, you may not have a lot of confidence in yourself and in your art, but the fact is you are human. That means if you are willing to put in the work, if you are willing to practice with intentionality, to not let mistakes stop you, to make garbage and keep going until it gets better, you will learn to make art.

90% of art is not talent. It is understanding the techniques, the patterns, and the tools. Anyone can learn to do that. And then because you are human, as you learn, your art gets better because you put yourself into it. Everything that you've experienced, everything that you know, that you feel, everything that you've survived, it goes into your art. It's not about whether or not you're super talented. It's about whether or not you love this enough to keep trying.

It's worth it, creative. It's absolutely worth it. Keep going. Learn more. When you mess up, don't worry. It's a happy little accident. Just keep creating. Sit down with me and together, let's make something new.