I am not an artist.

"Painting is easy when you don't know how, but very difficult when you do." ~Edgar Degas

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up." ~Pablo Picasso

     Upon looking up quotes about art, these two definitely stuck out to me, and this is most likely because I in no way consider myself an artist. Only on occation have I been able to produce some nice sketches or creations. My best friend on the other hand has a natural ability to draw fantastically and I think this is part of the reason I always wished I could. It has always seemed that everyone around me has some sort of natural talent, where as I have nothing. Nevertheless, this friend of mine decided last winter than she would try to teach me how to draw some basic things. First of all, she was not a very good teacher because she had a natural ability to correctly place the lines of the drawing and was consequently bad at attempting to explain how she knew what to do. Second of all, the more she said the more confused and frustrated I got. I was pretty much ready to give up entirely until last summer. I found an old sketch book in a pile of my things and decided to print a few interesting pictures offline and attempt to draw them. After sitting in my dimly lit room late into the night, I actually produced some acceptable looking drawings. They did not look identical to what I was trying to copy, but they were still good. Then it hit me that I simply have a different drawing style than she does. Therefore, when she was trying to teach me I was not able to produce things in the same manner that she could.
     I believe that if I actually took an artclass I might actually be able to learn how to be a better artist. I would never be as good as someone with a natural ability, but nonetheless. This leads me to wonder, can anyone learn how to be an artist or do people need to have a natural tendency or ability to be able to create art? As humans, I also wonder how much we are capable of actually learning. There is a show on MTV called MADE in which a teenager gets a coach and is made into anything they want to be: a break dancer, surfer, a beauty queen. But, could someone ever truly transform themselves into anything they want?