I hold to the naïve notion that art is about talent. It’s essentially an innate, physical skill for creating things.
Whether you paint, draw, sculpt or whatever, the measure of your artfulness rests largely on how gifted you are at using the instrument in your hand.
If you possess a substantial creative vision as well, then the combination of this and your physical talents can result in good art.
Talent without vision is like a beautiful, but hollow rendering. Likewise, having something of substance to say, yet lacking the skill to manifest your message is like a beautiful idea poorly executed.
Good art is a balance of the two.
Achieving this balance (even if you possess both halves) is extremely difficult, for often artists are so immersed in their passion that actually ‘seeing’ their efforts in an unbiased fashion is hard.
Being close to your art makes impartiality impossible, so the feedback of others is essential if you wish to communicate more effectively.
What you ‘think’ you say and what others see or understand can be two different things! Which techniques work best? What to show and how? What subjects convey my message successfully? These are questions that can be answered by honest, unfettered feedback, because informed appraisal can help artists to better apply their skills.
This is what the Northern Rivers art community sorely needs.
An art writer who is not an artist themselves, but who has both knowledge and curatorial experience that can help local artists to reflect upon their efforts.
R J Poole, Lismore
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
