Originally published at: One in 10 think they could sculpt a replica of Michelangelo's David. One in 5 think it's pornographic. | Boing Boing
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At least more people are realistic about their artistic skills than their tennis skills:
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Well, yes, they could turn a block of marble into something a bit more like David than it started as.
My sister recently moved to Italy after retiring from running a school of sculpture. She gets to visit David regularly now. She’s still nowhere near being able to carve such a work of art in marble, having spent the last 25 years working in clay.
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Here’s something to always bear(bare?) in mind
almost half of the U.S. adults surveyed believe
The majority of “U.S. adults” can’t be reached to provide surveys with their data. An unknown out-of-state phone number comes in, do you answer it? hell no. Do you click through to take a survey which asks stuff about you? uh no. That is, “U.S. adults surveyed” are anything but a proper random sample of “U.S. adults”. (in fact, some might posit they’re a rather…special sampling)
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Just for perspective…
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Dudes are a lot more likely to score a point off of Venus Williams than they are to be able to replicate David…
If nothing else, there’s a chance that Ms Williams could miss a serve when she is laughing too hard.
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I have dabbled in art through out my life, so I understand my capabilities well enough to say I could create recognizable representations of these pieces but not copies to the level of forgeries. I could sculpt David out of clay and it would be the wrong medium and lack the scale, refinement and proportions of the original, but I think most people familiar with David would recognize the inspiration. Same with the Van Gogh, I could freehand it and get a reasonable representation but it would lack the exact proportions, brushwork, pigment, paint quality, and much of the artistry of the original. So not sure if I would round up or round down my abilities if asked, but I guess that is moot because I wouldn’t answer the phone in the first place. 
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I mean, of course people think they can do it. People greatly underestimate the amount of time and energy that goes into creating anything.
I hear this all the time as a writer. People think they want to write a book when they retire (or have a bit of free time), but can’t grasp the sheer amount of work it is. The act of writing is mentally exhausting on its own and that’s not even taking into consideration the effort that goes into coming up with a fully formed idea that can be actually turned into a book (many people get so far, then hit a wall when the initial idea burns out).
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Coincidentally, I think at least 3 out of 10 people are stupid.
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Also related:
And just to remind people that it isn’t just Americans who are overconfident in their abilities
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Yep, this. People think creating art is easy. “That painting? Thats’ stupid, anyone can do it.”
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I’m not shocked at the art bits.
But, JFC -
[A]lmost half of the U.S. adults surveyed believe that companies should use facial recognition software to track employee attendance, and a quarter believe that software should be used to track how often employees take breaks.
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Having a bit of the ol’ imposter syndrome, I often think that about all the things I do, creative and otherwise, but have tried to get into the habit of adding, “but who did do it?” It’s one thing to say anyone could do it, it’s another to actually do it, whatever it might be.
But to the survey, it’s crazy that the same ratio of Americans who think David is porn also think Trump won in 2020 (according to a recent news story). I wonder what that Venn diagram looks like
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Lots of people are physically capable of sculpting a replica of Michaelangelo’s David. Almost all of those replicas would look like crap, but their aesthetic value wasn’t part of the question.
I wonder how many of the one in 5 who think it’s pornographic would also think a picture of a crucifix (cropped to show just Jesus’s torso and groin, not including His face, the crossbar, or His feet nailed to the upright) is pornographic?
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Just because you could do it, it doesn’t mean that it will be easy.
Steve says he was out of his depth, trying to keep up with international players and fighting the urge to steal a glance over to the stands where his wife, Bazza, and Chunk were watching in disbelief. “I didn’t get any shots on target because I was never alone. This wasn’t like park football. Defenders didn’t leave you alone.”
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Your belief that you can copy a Michelangelo or a Van Gogh is in inverse proportion to how much experience you actually have with marble and paint.
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I want to have written a book. Actually writing a book? Hell no.
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Were they to act on their beliefs, the overenthusiastic 10% who think they could reproduce David would just find out that they were wrong. The 20% who would classify it as pornographic would gladly take the censor’s pen to the entire world and are much more dangerous.
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