A Few Thoughts on Criticism

Reflection-Collected Gold oil 20 x 16



 I have been thinking about the pros and cons of criticism lately.  I think it is really easy to dismiss another person's work with off-hand criticism.  It is hard not to do it sometimes. We all have our own views of what makes a piece of art legitimate. I do think that criticism should be CONSTRUCTIVE and is useful when it is delivered constructively.

I have a few stories of my own, largely from art school critiques, where the criticism was aimed at the person, not the work. And I think that it even easier to criticize some one's work when you don't know them. I would like to believe (and I know this is not always true and may be viewed as idealistic) that everyone who picks up a paint brush is doing the best they can at that particular moment in time. It takes a tremendous amount of courage to hang one's imperfect paintings on the wall for the world to see. And perfection is REALLY hard to achieve. The best we can do is take one step at a time towards improving our work and work diligently.

I read this on illustrator Dan Santat's blog recently: "In a world where the arts seems to always be the first thing that gets cut or closed down due to financial strain I think it's more important than ever that there are people out there trying to create some form of art whether it may seem good or bad."

Ditto.