Kids learn quickly because they don’t tell themselves what they can and can’t do. Most adults are also willing to let their young children daydream about becoming outlandish things like astronauts and superheroes despite the fact that they know that their child will almost certainly not become the next Neil Armstrong, Superman, or Wonder Woman. This open mindedness allows children to put aside their fear of failure, if they even have any, and strive to achieve greatness in shoe tying, jungle gym climbing, screaming at the top of their lungs, or whatever else they put their mind to.
This is why I believe I, a legally blind person, decided to become an artist. When I was about four I started to draw with anything I could find because no one told me I couldn’t. I believed I could do anything I wanted, and if I wanted to be an artist I would be an artist. No one had the heart to tell a blind kid that she shouldn’t waste her time with things that she’d never be good at.
So, with patience, practice and persistence I did become good, well decent for a ten year old kid anyway. I experimented with different mediums, styles and colours. But, as I got closer to adulthood and started to understand that becoming an Astronaut was difficult and superheroes don’t really exist, I also began to realize that I was better with certain mediums and worse with others.
Once I noticed this I started to use the mediums that I thought I was better with, and avoiding the ones that I felt I wasn’t able to work well with. Now my colouring pencil skills are at a professional level that has surpassed everyone’s expectations.
There is a catch though, my painting skills are taking a lot longer to develop than I would like, and to make matters worse, I don’t even like painting. Noticing this as an adult is extremely frustrating, but If I were a kid again, the difference in skill level wouldn’t matter; in fact I wouldn’t even notice it, and since the difference in skill level wouldn’t matter, the act of painting would be a lot more enjoyable.
Recently I’ve begun to play around with watercolour paint. I say the word play because when I paint, I find it works better if I try to put myself into the frame of mind of a kid. Everyone knows that I watch enough Disney movies for that. I try to forget that Neil Armstrong was lucky to step onto the moon and that red capes don’t make you fly.
My advice for you, the reader, is that when you paint, or play chess, or do whatever it is that you do that you’re trying to get better at, try to tell yourself that what you call a mistake is actually an opportunity to learn, or a happy accident. Moreover, try to tell yourself that there are no mistakes. After all, young children don’t point out the mistakes they make when they're learning a new skill, they laugh at it and move on.
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