Stephen Worth, director of the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive, on the importance of skill:
Ever since Andy Warhol made “ideas without skill” fashionable back in the 60s, it seems to me that popular culture has been playing a game of “skill limbo”. How low can we go? How badly drawn can a cartoon be and still be considered a cartoon? How many drum machines and sequencers can we stack up to avoid having to learn a real instrument? How much plastic surgery does it take to make acting skills unnecessary?
Gladwellian-10,000 hours come to mind. He continues:
See also:
The multi-part series, “Adventures in Music,” is unmissable.
But when I see someone who has both an idea AND skill, I’m reminded just how doggone powerful and dynamic a creative artist can be. I’m sick and tired of accepting “half a loaf”. Speak to me with eloquence. Dazzle me with your skill. Communicate an important idea. I insist on “all of the above”.
You said it, Stephen Worth, with both idea and skill. And as Richard Sennett reminds us, “making is thinking.”
