Talent vs. Work

I was originally reading this article for a Ceramics I journal abstract assignment, but then I realized it could relate to the book "Art and Fear" and so I'll briefly mention it.

I chose an article which basically talks about a production potter (John Bauman) who after graduating from college, started off with making 3,200 pieces annually as a living. Eventually, he was able to take part in a David Leach Workshop where he learned more about the aesthetic aspects of his work and his personal preferences. “I like the sense of the vessel being full when there’s nothing in it.” He now considers himself to be more of a craftsman than an artist, seeing the future as determining the actual art side of the works. Even when repeating forms, he claims that his “‘Identical’ is never intentionally that identical.” He calls the changing and evolving “a wonderful thing.”
I was quite amazed to see how this artist could replicate his work so successfully, especially by mostly building by hand. I can’t imagine making 3,200 pieces a year! What I also thought was interesting was the idea that he saw himself as more of a craftsman and later on mentioned that the learning curve for a production potter is much slower than normal since he doesn’t get to explore very many different methods and ideas when replicating. It sort of reminds me of the concept that an HU alumnus artist mentioned (An idea from "Art and Fear") at his art reception this year, that at a certain point, "hard work becomes indistinguishable from natural talent."

I definitely think that hard work is a given whether one has great or little talent. I think that as humans, we all can at least have some comprehension of art and story, it just varies and is allotted differently (Lady Gaga is no Mozart, but she does have both an understanding of music and talent-though one can argue that's debatable.) I think often times there are very artistic people who just haven't found where their talent fits, and if they don't practice, it doesn't grow and is underdeveloped. Concerning the art of storytelling whether it's writing, drawing, animating, film making etc. I think it's all in the mind; a person has to change the way he/she views and interprets things through practice and experimenting and that's how one gets better. Anyhow, I don't know that hard work and talent can be indistinguishable, but John Bauman certainly makes a good case for that theory.