The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work. ?Émile Zola

Wow this sounds an awful lot like yesterday’s quote.  You know me, I love a theme, especially when I use these in the classroom.  It amazed me that not only did my students not notice the similarity until I pointed them out, but that’s another story.  I could repeat what I said yesterday, but that’s pretty pointless.  Instead, I want to talk about artists and talent.  Because everybody has a talent, and being an artist isn’t limited to painting a picture, or writing a poem.  There are so many talents.  There are as many talents as there are people in this big beautiful world.  Being a good parent is a talent, sewing is a talent, being able to put together a nice outfit to wear is a talent.  So is making a good dinner with next to nothing in the house, or being able to stretch a budget. What about somebody who always makes people feel good.  That’s an amazing talent!  My point is, there are so many of us that say we don’t have talents, and yet we do.  Everybody is gifted at something, and our job in life is to figure out what we’re good at and do it!  Use your talents, develop them, make them stronger – yeah that’s the work portion.  Don’t waste your gifts, use them and make them grow.