Cynics and snobs, the lot of them
There are some disgusting attitudes out there, right under my nose, in a "creative" environment and its pissing me off. I am filled with disenchantment. The art program here is harboring some terribly negative and constrictive perspectives that are completely discouraging. Maybe I'm easily discouraged, actually I am constantly battling with my self esteem, centered mainly upon other peoples' opinions, still I know that the worst thing to encounter in an art class, gratuitous criticism, is rampant here. Frankly its dis-empowering, and not primarily to me, but to the many other bad drawers out there who are just trying their best in the face of judgmental beams of poisonous elitism.
I had a critique today, if that isn't already obvious. Fine, I can deal with some criticism, believe me I did. My self portrait of my horse and I when I was four had some nice comments, but the young instructor still had to blast away at every small miniscule problem with it (I did get originality points). I wasn't alone, virtually everyone in the class got pounded, not viciously, but nevertheless the critique went on for three hours, a highly realistic piece was too boring, "like a myspace picture" the stylized ones had myriad flaws, in short barely anything was good. The instructor really helped no-one with his hyper criticism, since most of his comments weren't imbued with suggestions.
That wasn't horrible, it just primed me for my smoking break with two freshmen, who I actually really like aside from their snide gossip. I'm inclined to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, I hate burdening people with my subjective opinions which really have no right to discourage anyone, especially young people who are giving their best. I am in short just not very judgmental, there were pieces I liked more than others but I respected every single one regardless. During my smoking break I listened to these girls trade egotistical banter about some of the students, one who plans to teach said "I don't know what I'd do if i had a student with so little talent, what are they doing here" I said "maybe they're photography majors" and "I really like folky, stylized art" referring to a particularly sweet and nervous girl's piece, they replied "me too, if its intentional, and it wasn't" snigger, snigger "and her hair, poor girl". Arggghh. But of course they liked mine, I was there wasn't I...
I realize that being an artist requires facing criticism and harsh opinions. I just despise attitudes that seek to degrade someone to stroke their confidence, even if its true someone sucks...the energy alone infects. I also couldn't help comparing my art class experience here to CSF, where everyone was so laid back and usually positive. Here's a little criticism for the UT art department; most of the art I saw at CSF was ten times as original, thoughtful, and creative than anything I've yet seen here. I feel like my creative spirit has been inadvertently corrupted and inspiration disturbed, what the fuck am I learning?
I had a critique today, if that isn't already obvious. Fine, I can deal with some criticism, believe me I did. My self portrait of my horse and I when I was four had some nice comments, but the young instructor still had to blast away at every small miniscule problem with it (I did get originality points). I wasn't alone, virtually everyone in the class got pounded, not viciously, but nevertheless the critique went on for three hours, a highly realistic piece was too boring, "like a myspace picture" the stylized ones had myriad flaws, in short barely anything was good. The instructor really helped no-one with his hyper criticism, since most of his comments weren't imbued with suggestions.
That wasn't horrible, it just primed me for my smoking break with two freshmen, who I actually really like aside from their snide gossip. I'm inclined to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, I hate burdening people with my subjective opinions which really have no right to discourage anyone, especially young people who are giving their best. I am in short just not very judgmental, there were pieces I liked more than others but I respected every single one regardless. During my smoking break I listened to these girls trade egotistical banter about some of the students, one who plans to teach said "I don't know what I'd do if i had a student with so little talent, what are they doing here" I said "maybe they're photography majors" and "I really like folky, stylized art" referring to a particularly sweet and nervous girl's piece, they replied "me too, if its intentional, and it wasn't" snigger, snigger "and her hair, poor girl". Arggghh. But of course they liked mine, I was there wasn't I...
I realize that being an artist requires facing criticism and harsh opinions. I just despise attitudes that seek to degrade someone to stroke their confidence, even if its true someone sucks...the energy alone infects. I also couldn't help comparing my art class experience here to CSF, where everyone was so laid back and usually positive. Here's a little criticism for the UT art department; most of the art I saw at CSF was ten times as original, thoughtful, and creative than anything I've yet seen here. I feel like my creative spirit has been inadvertently corrupted and inspiration disturbed, what the fuck am I learning?