Revisiting my notes I wrote six years ago about the book Peak
Six years ago I read the book Peak by Anders Ericsson, probably one of the most influential books I have read since becoming an artist. I am always striving to be a better technician of my craft. I do believe skill is directly related to my ability to prosper as an artist. I am always devising some new study plan to level up my skills.
Recently I was reviewing one of my ideas sketchbooks from 2016 and I came upon some of my notes from when I was reading Peak. In those notes I also had a personal assessment of where I was in my journey as an artist. I had come to the conclusion that I needed to double down on some specific skills.
It’s six years later and I can say that I am grateful for that quiet afternoon where I thought about my art and how to get to the next level. At the time, I didn’t know how or what I was going to do exactly, but I was determined to keep pushing the boundaries of my comfort zone.
What I love about the book is that it breaks down the belief that you are either born with talent or not. That somehow you are naturally inclined to one way of thinking and performing, and even if you want to master a specific skill you can’t because you’ve got no talent and weren’t born that way. I love Anders Ericsson asserts in his book, Peak, that this belief is false.
Anyone can become an expert in anything if they are willing to put in the time and deliberately practice that skill.
You see this is especially personal to me because I was raised by my family to be a doctor. My parents were always engaging with me to do math and science activities, which I did like, but I also had to hide my interest in drawing. I would get in trouble when my dad would find my hidden stash of drawing paper. In third grade I had a supportive teacher who allowed me to clean up and organize the teacher supply closet and then take home all of the toned paper that the teachers were no longer using. It was a 3 inch tall stack of paper.
I was in heaven and so grateful of the generosity of my teacher.
I took it home and hid it, occasionally bringing it out to draw after school. One day I had not picked up after drawing and my dad found it and he threw out all my paper because he wanted me to be spending more time on doing practical things like math and science. And not art! So not paint my dad as a total ogre, he was probably did not like the mess of all the scattered paper and that may have been what motivated the loss of my stash of drawing paper more than stopping me to draw. But, I have always had to persevere in my desire to create art and show up for myself.
Why am I sharing this personal story, because as a kid, everyone said I was a natural at math and science and I was expected to go into medicine. I didn’t but I also didn’t go to the artist route either. As you might know from previous writings, I practiced architecture for nine years.
However my love of art, of drawing and painting, has always been with me. I have had to work very hard to build my skills and to reach the level that I am at now, and the book Peak helped me realize that there was a way to deliberately build my art skills. And I am forever so grateful for it. I cannot say enough, if you want to learn more about how to build up your technical skills in any subject than read this book.
