Steve, I certainly agree with what Ira's saying, but I'm not sure "taste" is the right word. In my own experience at least, "taste" usually implies a sort of fussy concern with things being in their correct places, colors blending properly and being "tasteful," people wearing "tasteful" clothes, restaurants decorating their tables with "tasteful" flower arrangements, etc.
I don't believe people become artists because they have "good taste." Seems to me some of the world's greatest artists did things that were "tasteless." I guess Picasso would top that list, along with Braque. Cubism certainly wasn't considered to be tasteful, at least not at first, and Picasso's later works shocked the tasteful.
I guess I'd change Ira's second sentence to read something like this: "All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have an irresistible desire to express our reactions to the world around us." There's probably a word for that, but as I get older I have a harder and harder time coming up with the word I want. On the other hand I know it's not "taste." And the "special thing" Ira's talking about isn't "taste," it's the ability of your work to convey meaning to other people.