Development of Creative Talent: Portrait of an Artist as a Middle-Aged Man

Abstract

This article examined environmental factors contributing to the development of artistic talent. The subject is a 56-yr.-old internationally acclaimed ceramic artist. Interviews with the artist, his family, students, colleagues, and acquaintances provided the main source of data; records, tapes of lectures, photographs, and actual artistic products yielded additional information. The subject was the product of a warm, stable, achievement-oriented home atmosphere where little attention was paid to the arts. His early association with a culturally enriched family, his urban environment, his propitious university experience, and his personal ambition—all contributed to the full realization of his abilities. Gifted in the areas of music, sports, and drawing, he experienced a crystallizing experience at the age of 17 which set the course of further creative productivity. The findings are consistent with prior views expressed by Ammons and Ammons in 1962, by Bloom in 1985 and by Walker in 1986.