Why do you like art? I was considering taking it, but it is hard and I suck at it.This is for knowing what to take next year. It is also for a...

I have an opinion which does not agree with the common
notions of "talent", which is thought most often to be an innate ability in doing
something. If you don't have talent, they say, you can't be good at painting/drawing,
etc.

My take is that anyone can paint, draw, sing, etc.
with very little innate endowment (seeing and hearing, for example, are necessary). I
think that the only reason we may feel like we lack a talent is because we think before
ever trying it that we lack the talent. It is this fear of letting go of inhibitions
that make us clumsy, make our singing voices shiver in fright, that make us draw lines
that have no expressiveness because they are drawn without any vigour. We simply hold
back.

How this fear came about with some things and didn't
with others (the talents) is probably a result of an initial trial in doing that
activity and the first responses we had from our parents, most likely. Where drawing and
painting were encouraged and the child received praise, the confidence in one's ability
grows. Also, since this is a reward type of reaction, it also brings pleasure. Soon
enough, with enough rewards, the activity itself becomes rewarding. Simply enjoying
something is likely to make us better at that activity, since we are inclined to do it
more often, we are inclined to better it as much as possible for greater enjoyment and
rewards.

Why do kids draw and paint and adults not? Well,
kids are generally allowed to do things they are not good at, without subsequent
judgement from others. Even if a child is not good at drawing or painting and doesn't
receive praise, s/he still doodles on the sides of the notebook. It's alright that
they're ugly, it's just one of the many things that the child isn't very good at -
perfectly acceptable to have fun without an impressive result. But then we grow up and
it is no longer ok to suck at something. We become embarrassed feeling the peer
pressure, we only want to do those things which we are good at. We don't even know if
we'd enjoy painting something, we simply won't try it because we know that somewhere in
our past, last time when we painted, it sucked.

So, just
like the upper answer says - you may be suprised. But I'd advise you to give yourself a
chance and don't be so convinced that you suck at it. To suck at "art" is practically
impossible, since there are so many mediums, you couldn't possibly suck at all of them.
The only requirement is that the medium is new to you and that you think you could be
good at it. To fight against old entrenched inhibitions is a very hard
quest.

And why do I like art? I like it because artworks
have something mysterious about them, something about them attracts my attention and
then I feel something, but I don't know why. This makes me curious and I will keep
searching in myself why I like it until I begin to understand. I realize it reminds me
of something, but it is not the same as that, so I look at the differences, etc.
etc.

The reason I like art is because I like discovering, I
like knowing what there is to know behind something mysterious. If it caught my
attention, then I have to know why it did so. I have to know these things equally
because I want to know more about the world and know something about
myself.