Nannette Schweig Hoffman
Poetry
Take Risks!1/20/2018 In forty years of teaching art and poetry, the word talent has always been questionable. Usually, students feel that they have no talent and become discouraged early on. To that I say: Ignore all those who want you to believe that you have no talent. Take risks! Listen to your heart! Believe in yourself more than in those who criticize you. Learn from those who have achieved, but always believe in your own instinct and original style when creating important work. Failures are stepping-stones to success. Accept them and move on. That is the key: a willingness to fail and then keep going. I have found that those who feel loved and supported can do this most easily. In my own experience, when I began drawing and writing poems at age five, my older brother, who was ten, criticized me. He insisted that I was never doing anything good. But I never let his words discourage me because my mother greatly encouraged every creative attempt I ever made! Even when I preferred to write my own piano music and put lyrics to it, instead of practicing my scales, (as I was supposed to), my mother was always thrilled to see me express myself creatively. I am eternally grateful to my mother to this day, since my piano playing, poetry, and especially painting, has improved over the years, giving me so many hours of joy. We all must begin somewhere. For me, talent was the result of love. Listen to your heart, believe that you are loved and allow yourself the joy of creativity.
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