Saturday, March 3, 2012
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Hear Me Please...
I was wondering what i would really try and write about on this blog and i realize that i have a very diverse group of friends and classmates that are going through lots of different things that if not voiced might be feelings shared with other students so i will try to post after my classes and see what the take is from everyone.
Pros and Cons of "art" critiques
Today in class a good friend of mine had her art critiqued by a few of us together including a teacher that in all words is a very well knowledgeable individual and extremely talented. The critique as a whole might not have gone the way the artist wanted it to go, but it was a very interesting and productive one.
The idea of a critique for any artist is "to put your work out to the wolves" so to speak no one should expect that everyone who views your work will come to the same interpretation as you have. But we are all human and in that, anything we do we naturally have an personal attachment to it. If you don't have an atachment then you should be able to accept the positive stuff and the negative stuff that people say about it, yet in order to do this you must first let go. It is my interpretation that as an artist if you are going to have any type of attachment to any thing that you create you should keep that item to your self, because letting others attempt to interpret it will only lead to someones feelings being hurt and a negative outlook in the end. The only reason i say this is if you are attached to the piece and no one else sees the beauty or concept that you see, weather its a finished or unfinished creation the end resultwill not be what you expect.
Not to say this is how all artist and there crtiques are, or how we all think but for the sake of this subject we shall just say that we as artist need to all and i do emphasize all, learn to detach our personal links to our own creations in order to let them out in the world to be accepted, how ever another chooses too or chooses not to.
In her defense i do understand the underlying issue with the critique its self. It seems that in some places it is possible that the personal experiences with the teachers that do the critiques can be swayed by their personal styles and views of that individual, and in a way it some times seems that the school as a whole is all reading the same book on the subject, then each time your work is viewed it would almost seem a tad bit one sided. For example if you felt that you finished the piece and wanted to step away but it seems that they see an unfinished peice they hold to this notion that in order for a piece to be completed there is some guide line on what is a finished piece, but how can this be if we are all different and paint different and each creation we spen time on is supposed to have a diffent outcome, then how can our work be pushed into this one box.
I have come up to this fork in the road before aswell if you work on a piece and once you believe that it is done you are ready to step away and when it is crtiqued they see an un finished piece there may be more then one reason to this sometimes its ok to step away you dont want to push your self into and corner and then there are time that maybe the sujestions are good ones and you should listen but you swayed atleast accept that you dont have to be swayed one way or ther other to please anyone sometimes you have to STEP AWAY.
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.
Criticism can be a hard thing to give and take without offending or being offended, but criticism can be a great help if done properly. It can help you find the areas that you need to improve upon. It helps you set ideas and boundaries for your next work- whether that be a poem, story, painting, sculpture, anything.
The key to a good critique is to listen. Open your ears to the ideas of the viewers you DO NOT have to take everything that they say as concrete but you can do no harm in listening.
It’s hard to not take it personally. Our instinctive reaction is to become defensive and we shut out potentially helpful and life-enhancing tips. By doing this, we miss out on what could supercharge our improvement.
So how can you take criticism without getting self-conscious and defensive?
Answer: An effective way to accept criticism is to externalize it.
When you externalize criticism, you escape the defensiveness trap. You stop being self-conscious and take criticism objectively, which lets you reap the benefits of the helpful tips that the criticism contains.
Externalizing criticism lets you extract helpful tips from even the most critical feedback. You take the bits that make sense to you and discard the rest. You don’t risk getting defensive or even feeling bad or self-conscious.
Externalizing criticism is also a shield from bad and unhelpful criticism. It doesn’t matter how much or what kind of comments and criticism you get: you look at it all objectively. You can take what makes sense to you and discard the rest.
When you externalize criticism, you can easily take and use it to supercharge your personal improvement.
The reason we get defensive when taking criticism is because we’re tied to our ego. So when someone is giving tips on how we can improve, that person is indirectly acknowledging that we’re not great at something. And our ego gets bruised.
As Dr. Leon F. Seltzer explains in his Psychology Today article on why criticism is so hard to take:
“Criticism, even well-intended criticism, can be understood as a direct assault on our ego. When (however unconsciously) we’ve come to associate our very selves with our ego or point of view, then whenever our perspective is questioned, disbelieved, or disputed, we cannot but experience ourselves in jeopardy – our mental and emotional poise at once thrown into disequilibrium.”
Even if it’s made clear that the criticism is not to criticize but instead show how you can improve, you naturally want to defend yourself. And when you go into defensive mode, you don’t get the tips from the criticism that could really supercharge your improvement.
So detach yourself from your ego – at least when you take criticism. Externalize the criticism so you look at it objectively, rather than as a critique of yourself (and thus your ego).
When you're asked to give someone constructive criticism, remember that it's supposed to be constructive and helpful. If you see something wrong or something that could be done a different way to make the piece better, don't say that the person is wrong. An artist is never wrong in how he feels his painting should flow.
Tips to give criticism:
Criticism is crucial for personal improvement. It’s the most direct way to find out what you should improve on. However, accepting criticism can be emotionally challenging. Afterall, we’re only human, who wants to hear bad stuff about ourselves?
In the end you only want whats best for your painting and in the end you have to live with the choices that you have made, its not up to you how others will see it as long as you do see the goal you set out for...
Love you C.....
Pros and Cons of "art" critiques
Today in class a good friend of mine had her art critiqued by a few of us together including a teacher that in all words is a very well knowledgeable individual and extremely talented. The critique as a whole might not have gone the way the artist wanted it to go, but it was a very interesting and productive one.
The idea of a critique for any artist is "to put your work out to the wolves" so to speak no one should expect that everyone who views your work will come to the same interpretation as you have. But we are all human and in that, anything we do we naturally have an personal attachment to it. If you don't have an atachment then you should be able to accept the positive stuff and the negative stuff that people say about it, yet in order to do this you must first let go. It is my interpretation that as an artist if you are going to have any type of attachment to any thing that you create you should keep that item to your self, because letting others attempt to interpret it will only lead to someones feelings being hurt and a negative outlook in the end. The only reason i say this is if you are attached to the piece and no one else sees the beauty or concept that you see, weather its a finished or unfinished creation the end resultwill not be what you expect.
Not to say this is how all artist and there crtiques are, or how we all think but for the sake of this subject we shall just say that we as artist need to all and i do emphasize all, learn to detach our personal links to our own creations in order to let them out in the world to be accepted, how ever another chooses too or chooses not to.
In her defense i do understand the underlying issue with the critique its self. It seems that in some places it is possible that the personal experiences with the teachers that do the critiques can be swayed by their personal styles and views of that individual, and in a way it some times seems that the school as a whole is all reading the same book on the subject, then each time your work is viewed it would almost seem a tad bit one sided. For example if you felt that you finished the piece and wanted to step away but it seems that they see an unfinished peice they hold to this notion that in order for a piece to be completed there is some guide line on what is a finished piece, but how can this be if we are all different and paint different and each creation we spen time on is supposed to have a diffent outcome, then how can our work be pushed into this one box.
I have come up to this fork in the road before aswell if you work on a piece and once you believe that it is done you are ready to step away and when it is crtiqued they see an un finished piece there may be more then one reason to this sometimes its ok to step away you dont want to push your self into and corner and then there are time that maybe the sujestions are good ones and you should listen but you swayed atleast accept that you dont have to be swayed one way or ther other to please anyone sometimes you have to STEP AWAY.
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.
Criticism can be a hard thing to give and take without offending or being offended, but criticism can be a great help if done properly. It can help you find the areas that you need to improve upon. It helps you set ideas and boundaries for your next work- whether that be a poem, story, painting, sculpture, anything.
The key to a good critique is to listen. Open your ears to the ideas of the viewers you DO NOT have to take everything that they say as concrete but you can do no harm in listening.
It’s hard to not take it personally. Our instinctive reaction is to become defensive and we shut out potentially helpful and life-enhancing tips. By doing this, we miss out on what could supercharge our improvement.
So how can you take criticism without getting self-conscious and defensive?
Answer: An effective way to accept criticism is to externalize it.
When you externalize criticism, you escape the defensiveness trap. You stop being self-conscious and take criticism objectively, which lets you reap the benefits of the helpful tips that the criticism contains.
Externalizing criticism lets you extract helpful tips from even the most critical feedback. You take the bits that make sense to you and discard the rest. You don’t risk getting defensive or even feeling bad or self-conscious.
Externalizing criticism is also a shield from bad and unhelpful criticism. It doesn’t matter how much or what kind of comments and criticism you get: you look at it all objectively. You can take what makes sense to you and discard the rest.
When you externalize criticism, you can easily take and use it to supercharge your personal improvement.
The reason we get defensive when taking criticism is because we’re tied to our ego. So when someone is giving tips on how we can improve, that person is indirectly acknowledging that we’re not great at something. And our ego gets bruised.
As Dr. Leon F. Seltzer explains in his Psychology Today article on why criticism is so hard to take:
“Criticism, even well-intended criticism, can be understood as a direct assault on our ego. When (however unconsciously) we’ve come to associate our very selves with our ego or point of view, then whenever our perspective is questioned, disbelieved, or disputed, we cannot but experience ourselves in jeopardy – our mental and emotional poise at once thrown into disequilibrium.”
Even if it’s made clear that the criticism is not to criticize but instead show how you can improve, you naturally want to defend yourself. And when you go into defensive mode, you don’t get the tips from the criticism that could really supercharge your improvement.
So detach yourself from your ego – at least when you take criticism. Externalize the criticism so you look at it objectively, rather than as a critique of yourself (and thus your ego).
When you're asked to give someone constructive criticism, remember that it's supposed to be constructive and helpful. If you see something wrong or something that could be done a different way to make the piece better, don't say that the person is wrong. An artist is never wrong in how he feels his painting should flow.
Tips to give criticism:
- Know the goals: Make sure that you know what problem you're trying to solve. If you don't know what the creator is trying to get at and achieve, then you really don't know what to offer in return.
- Personal Preferences out the window: Put your personal tastes aside. What you like is not always good. Because the criticism is not about you, you'll need to look at the creation with an unbiased tone.
- Talk equally about what it is as isn't: You want to give equal pros and cons. If the creator only gets to hear what needs to be fixed, his end choices on correcting the cons may not be the best. He needs to understand the strong and weak qualities.
- Oreo: Think of criticism as an oreo- give one good thing, one bad thing, one good thing. That way you end can end on a good note, but the person is able to see what could be better or changed. Obviously, if there are multiple different things that you feel need to happen, don't pile it in all in the middle- good, bad, bad, good, bad, bad, good, good.
The worse part of criticism is that someone has to hear it. Take it as a way to develop ideas. It's actually essential to master your skills.
Tips for receiving criticism:
- Shut up and listen: As a form of denial, you may try to defend your work to the points that are trying to be made to help you. Just listen to what the person has to say.
- Ask questions: So to not get confused or to get to take the criticism wrong, clarify what's being said by asking questions. Ask the person to show you what they mean.
- Refer to the goals: When the conversation seems to go astray, refer back to the goals. This can work if you feel that you're not getting the criticism in the direction that you were hoping. I.E. the person looked at your work in a different way.
- Question what changes would make it better: In regards to the criticism that you received, as the person what changes he feels would make the work better. "How can I improve that?"
“Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary.
It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body.
It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.”
~ Winston Churchill
It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body.
It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.”
~ Winston Churchill
In the end you only want whats best for your painting and in the end you have to live with the choices that you have made, its not up to you how others will see it as long as you do see the goal you set out for...
Love you C.....
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Change
Change is not a bad thing but everything we do in life is an experience in itself and there’s no use in going to school and being unhappy with what’s going on around you and having no say to change it.
Some one really important once told me that change is not changed until it’s changed…. We should have some more control over the things that will in the long run affect our futures, we need to Voice our opinions and seek better results to our problems instead of doing nothing and just complaining.
We have to be able to talk about the things that we would like to see happen, no one is going to read our minds and this is the main reason i put this together. GRAD's we have to make the best of our educations we can not just follow the same steps as everyone else and expect a different outcome.
Some of the first things i am going to try and implement in my school is class surveys, this is something that i think is a really good way to start opening up to our Professors. Before i put the questions together we also want to get questions from other students that's think they have a question that might be encouraging and helpful. You can post the questions as comments or email them to me directly.
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