The Perfect Critique

To begin with, the perfect critique is one where I learn something that makes me a better artist. A good critique should inspire one to want to go back and create an even better piece of art, either through reworking an artwork or in the next artistic endeavor. I really liked the formal analytic approach we took on Monday because it made us really look at each piece and consider each line, nuance, and compositional detail. Then we were able to make objective conclusions about what was going on in each etching. Sometimes, when we start with our own personal aesthetic opinions, we forget to talk about what went into the art making itself and the critique becomes more of an opinion poll instead. We don't learn as much, other than what someone else likes, and it can be hard or confusing about what we need to improve on while staying true to our own vision. The approach we took on Monday made us look and then really see how the piece was constructed and worked as a whole. ann