On Persistence and Vincent van Gogh - Timothy Standring / NY Times (Sun 28 Oct 2012)

Vincent van Gogh - The Met / New York City (Mon 15 Aug 2011)
Timothy Standring on Vincent van Gogh and Persistence:

We all think he’s a genius, but he placed a lot of value on craftsmanship. When he started, he had no talent for drawing. If you look at his early drawings, they’re horrible. So how did he develop?”

The answer, Mr. Van Tilborgh said, was persistence. “If he couldn’t do it, he tried it 50 more times. He was one of those rare artists who had the energy to work through the fear of failure.

Via The Genius in us All (*) from New York Times (*).