“There is nothing so beautiful as to approach the Divinity and spread its rays for the human race.”
-Beethoven
There are few things one needs to make great art of any kind. Technique and talent are certainly helpful tools to this end, but we have all seen popular artists reach millions while embodying a foundation that pedagogues would denounce as beyond the pale.
I see two essentials: discipline and meaning. Good marketing might allow one to bypass the former, but we are often awestruck by the person who delays gratification under the possibility of future rewards; In the “artist,” these rewards are often beyond the material... Even the person with no financial gain in sight can be carried on wings of meaning and purpose. If the artist believes they have something worth saying, obstacles of technique and talent may fall away in the wake of a higher idea.
Call it God, Universe or any other limited term representing the transcendence possible when a creative is absorbed in the act of creation. In the words of writer, orator and psychonaut Terence McKenna: “the greatest good you can do is to bring back a new idea...” If equipped with this intention to answer the call of “why?” The creative can bear almost any how.