(Spoiler alert: This is short, but it hasn't a single photo. And it's didactic. Sometimes...I gotta preach.)
I started out with some natural talent for drawing and a love of found materials for creating random art projects. That, some spare change and an application might have bought me an interview for art school.
But I didn’t get to go to art school. Even more than there being no money for such fripperies, I was told the usual: it was impractical, and might make me nuts, to boot. Somehow I managed to get a degree in English instead, because if I could not learn art I would write. I am still surprised over this turn of events. After all, it was not exactly a course of study any better inclined to earn me a living than art.
I leave these bald facts there without further explication and just say that despite the lack of formal art education, if you are determined, do lots of reading, observing, practice and work, you will get much further than talent alone can ever take you. Talent is a speck of a starting point. I spent more than two decades learning the technical parts of this craft, and the practical aspects of turning it into a small business, before I started giving out business cards. I don't think the best is behind me yet, either.
Better business savvy is also ahead of me, I hope. While I have lots of practice and determination to keep my vision rolling and improving, business courses would have been a big plus. I struggle to apply what I keep learning. It would have been a good idea to pay attention in math over the years (duh). And art school would have been great back in my early 20s. Truly great. There are lots of "woulda, coulda, shouldas." I pay for it now in slow increments of change and development. I take classes and seminars when I can, and I consult my business experts- who did go to school and paid attention, too- when I need advice.
I see some young extended family members and others fumbling about trying to make it in this society without the benefit of a good education. More than one happens to be artistically inclined. All I can think is about my own long trip to get here, where someone half my age with a good education in art and marketing might be, and I wish them well. It's nice to have talent. If you want to make a life in art, I highly recommend that you go to school. It's a long and grinding road doing it all on one's own.