“Art is never finished, only abandoned.” -Leonardo Da Vinci

Avery: What I find fascinating about Leonardo Da Vinci, is that he never had a formal education. That’s right, Leonardo Da Vinci, one of the greatest geniuses of our time, never went to a formal school. Instead, at age 15, Leonardo became an apprentice to the great Florentine painter Andrea del Verrocchio, it was this man who taught Da Vinci how to paint and sculpt, and ultimately sent Da Vinci down his life path.

But Da Vinci did not live an easy life, like all great men in history he struggled. Da Vinci was a procrastinator, which I personally can relate too, and I am sure many of you can as well. Da Vinci was a perfectionist, and likely, a harsh critic of his own work. He had irregular working habits, and would spend a long time on each and every art piece he made. He would spend days pondering and meditating, sketching his ideas out onto paper before putting them on canvas. Leonardo’s famous mural painting “The Last Supper” took 3 years for him to complete, much to the dismay of his patron whom commissioned the work, the Duke of Milan. It is said Da Vinci would stare for hours at the painting, sometimes he would make but one singular brushstroke in a session and leave. Da Vinci started painting his most famous work “The Mona Lisa” in 1503, and for 16 years would continue to perfect the work until his death in 1519. Given this, one may argue that the Mona Lisa is in fact an incomplete painting.

Leonardo started working on a clay horse sculpture in 1482. The clay sculpture was intended to be cast in bronze. Sadly, the clay sculpture was destroyed by French soldiers when they invaded Milan in 1499, and only sketches of the horse remain today. Even though we will never see the original sculpture, multiple modern recreations of the horse have been made based on Da Vinci’s original design. The sad truth is much of Da Vinci’s work has been lost or destroyed. There are only 15 paintings that are definitively attributed to Da Vinci. It is likely Da Vinci made many more paintings, but are now lost to the sands of time, some of his work perhaps even destroyed by his own accord.

While Leonardo may have been slow with his painting, he was incredibly productive with his journals. There are eleven surviving manuscripts of his notes and drawings, amounting to thousands of pages. So, while it may seem like Leonardo was slacking off to outside eyes, he was constantly thinking and creating. Leonardo’s books showcase the genius of the man. His journals are comprised of ideas and observations about various subjects, including art, anatomy, architecture, botany, engineering, and math. His journals showcase the deep curiosity that this man had for the world around him. Sadly, despite all that he’d done, Da Vinci considered himself to be a failure and disappointment. It is no surprise to me that an artist like Da Vinci thought that, it seems to be commonplace throughout history of artists being self critical of their own work. Feeling that they never amounted to their potential. You are your own worst critic as they say. But in learning that, I couldn’t help but think, that if an artist like Da Vinci thought himself to be a failure, then what of us?

I believe a lot of young people today have placed incredibly high expectations on themselves, expectations that are so high that we are ultimately setting ourselves up for disappointment. Social Media certainly has not helped in this regard, for everywhere you turn on internet there is someone out there more successful than you, and it’s easy to get caught in this cycle of comparison, but it will ultimately lead to damage of our psyche. In this fast paced era we put so much emphasis on productivity, choosing quantity over quality, often all just for capitalistic gain. I think there is something we can all learn from Da Vinci, that maybe, being present with your art, your craft, and focusing on improvement is more important than quantity. As artists, we must hone our craft, and the path to improvement requires iteration and practice, but it should all be a means of improvement. Would we not rather place our time and energy in creating something that we truly felt proud of?

The only person you should ever compare yourself to, is you. It is the only competition that matters. Because who you are today is not who you were yesterday, and the door to improvement is always open. The door never closes, not until the day you die. Curiosity is what fueled Da Vinci, we think everything in our world has been discovered and that everything has already been done, we think the world is mundane, but maybe that is a lie we tell ourselves, so we remain complacent to the fear of failure. Do not be afraid to learn, do not be afraid to be curious. Make something you would be proud of, not to impress others, but to impress yourself. Take time with your craft.