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Cynthia,
I think the matter of taste is ultimately a conditioned state- For the artist, sophisticated taste should be desired and sought.
As a student, I had to copy old master drawings & paintings, do memory drawings from figures in paintings, and study fine paintings for the purpose of compositional study. Why the emphasis on the old masters? It was, both prominently and subtly, to develop my artistic sensibility, to absorb as much as possible from the "taste" of the greatest artists. We can learn directly from the masters in areas concerning craft, but we also begin to develop and appreciate the sensibilities of those artists as well.
If you grow up in a home where nothing but classical music is played on the stereo, then you will know and appreciate classical music more than one who grows up in a home with country and western music. If your home has fine paintings on the walls, you will inspire a different sensibility in your home than if you hung those velvet Elvis's.
We all come with intuition and tendencies, but those can be heavily influenced by our environments and our heroes. To study and learn from the greatest artists is not to become their clones, but it is to incorporate as many of their strengths as possible into our own arsenals.
I do my own work, in my own way, but if they were offered as a gift, I would gladly accept and incorporate the taste and sensibilities of those who did it best.
Kirk
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