I love to do a lot of market research and I'm always looking at the work of other silk artists and fashion designers. I sometimes become deeply inspired by the color, design, and skill of artists and designers; however, I also become disappointed to see a lot of mediocre silk art posing as "unique", "labor intensive", and "high-quality". It seems to be that individuals practicing silk art become scared of stepping out their boundaries or afraid of creating something that will overstep the boundaries of the "commercial".
As artists we should have the courage and sincerity to give each other honest criticism and to help each other grow artistically. Giving each other sugar-coated criticism or praising something that does not deserve praise is damaging to our work and our skill growth.
I admire the courage and the effort that it takes to take up silk painting but I believe that it's important and necessary to take skill-building classes, give each other constructive criticism, and support each other by being sincere and honest.
I would agree with you. I recently went to an event advertised as an art critique, held at a special artist commune in my community. The leader of my artist/design group, who is a retired professor from Rhode Island School of Design, was the featured speaker. I arrived late, but assumed I knew the rules for the critiquing session since I am a member of his group that meets once a month in his studio, where we critique each other's work according to the principles of design. The session did not go as I anticipated. It seemed to be that it was more about people presenting their work and not wanting constructive criticism, but encouragement, which as a facilitator of creativity workshops, I'm all for and support 100%. Fragile beginning artist are not ready for criticism. It's just I felt that this event was advertised as a critique session and I had assumed that we all knew what that meant. My leader and I met after this event and talked about what happened and decided that it would be best to establish rules up front as to what would be expected at the next session. So look to the format. What is it's purpose? And if you don't know, ask. I suspect that I would have found the answers to that questions interesting at the event I went to and that the answers would have been as individual as the people there.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for your comment.
DeleteI would like to add that criticism makes an artist great. Without it, we're only walking in the dark and we don't grow. Society's critique comes in the form of ignoring our work, which is more harsh than the criticism of a teacher. Art has to be shown and be critiqued by an expert so that it leads us towards the direction of artistic greatness.