I was born in one of the best places in the world to get in touch with art: Rome. Some artistic masterpieces are so physically close that you can’t avoid bumping into them by accident. Perhaps it’s that same proximity that pushes locals to be less appreciative and take art for granted: if it’s everywhere, how can it be so valuable?

It probably didn’t help I was taught art in school with some of the most uninspiring teachers and methods.. studying the golden ratio, but never hearing about the crazy life of Caravaggio, for example. So I got extremely bored.

 

Most importantly, the biggest factor for me never picking up even an artistic hobby was simply failure, reinforcing a strong limiting belief: I needed a gift.

Have you ever had a friend who appears to be just incredibly talented? Someone who, in comparison, made all of your efforts seem useless? I had a few. I would try drawing a simple cartoon character, carefully copying strokes from close distance, looking back and forth for hours. Its whole shape would just be elongated, twisted, simply all wrong.

In the meantime, my friend would just draw the same from memory, perhaps changing its position naturally, or making him perform some action, giving it life. What a beautiful power, such a gift – if you either have it or not, why even bother trying? That’s how I gave up, until recently, when I learned a big lessons, at the core of this project: this belief is wrong and it’s failing me.

A lot of us learn it in such a young age that’s it’s difficult to let go. So, across multiple areas of life, we think we either “have it” or not. We pursue a sport, or music, or drawing… trying hard, until we see someone who’s “gifted”, so much ahead of us, making it look so easy we find it disheartening, and impossible. And so we give up.

Well, not anymore! 🙂 Here’s someone who’s not gifted, and committed to keep on trying, until he nails it. I’m going to be painting / drawing every time I can, daily, even if it’s a simple sketch, and post it here – even if it sucks. Until it sucks less. And less.

If you want to say hi, or join the notgifted(s) with anything you’re trying to learn – feel free to send a email at hello@notgifted.com

Thanks for reading!
Ugo