My artist friends tell me they could teach me to draw – all it takes is time and practice. While I understand the techniques associated with all the Arts can be reduced to certain rules (drawing is all about controlling light for example) the truth of the matter for me lies in the fact that when I try to draw something I am not looking at, I have no picture to follow in my mind. Whereas when I sit down to write there are all the requisite images in my head and I play with the words to describe what I am seeing.
It is of course mundane to say all art exists in the brain and the way in with the synapses make connections, makes the artist. That says no more than that we are all made by our thoughts. The real question comes when we ask why we are not all artists, why some of us go different ways and whether that is chance, education or some inborn skills with which our brains are endowed.
I actually think there are many more artists in the world than we know, but most of them use art in their hobbies not in their everyday existence. The courage to be an artist also exists in the brain and it is impossible for me to even guess at where that comes from.