WTF?: Let 'er rip already.........

So you want to know the worst part about being an untrained, self-proclaimed artist???? You tend not to associate with your own breed. By that I mean, you are rarely in the company of true artists - i.e. the pretentious flakes that feel the need to dress as outlandish as possible because it helps to define or differentiate them from the rest of the crowd, or as I once heard it put, "normies" (non-art folk). Well - as I typically react - f' that. 

So back to the worst part - critiques. I work in the business world, and somewhere along the lines, someone decided to come up with a bullshit term for criticism so nobody's feelings got hurt - 'feedback' - what a stupid term. When someone recognizes you for something, it's called praise - when they completely tear your ass, its called 'feedback'. Last time I checked, feedback was the fucking noise that was produced when two stereophonic electronic devices emitting the same frequency came into close contact. Now it just means, "your an asshole, you need serious improvement, but let me communicate my feelings to you in a diplomatic way by not using any profanity to clearly state what I feel." 

Well, enough with corporate culture.

When your an artist, you tend to share your works with the people closest to you - it's instinctive - if they're your friends, that pretty much means that they have an opinion in which you share, or at least respect. well, when it comes to art, there couldn't be a more counter-productive environment than that. Your friends are not art experts (that is, unless, they are - i.e. they're a curator or art history major or something). 

For example:

I'm  personally pleased with this piece, but it's LOADED with mistakes!!!! Of course, any friend who sees it will automatically tell me "Dude, that's awesome!" - now, that doesn't mean that I'm unappreciative  - believe me, I pretty much put up with my parents for most of my life telling me that art is a bullshit career, and that it will never amount to anything - so I seriously take ever positive comment I get to heart, because it only motivates me to keep going.

BUT - because my friends are only so savvy about art, and what it takes to think of, sketch, line, and color a single piece, it's the equivalent of me complimenting an architect/construction manager on completing a new building because of how nice it looks. The thought, effort, doubt, etc. are pretty much void from then on.

So WTF? What does it take to get feedback from strangers - I DO have a professional reputation to uphold, so I can't exactly parade my work, in-hand, at an intersection and ask for honest opinions from strangers - after all, I'm from Miami so that could end REALLY bad for me, but what then? i wouldn't pay someone to sit and think about my work - that too would be biased based on the what I pay them? I don't want to take it to an art/design school frankly because I've seen/followed the art that comes out of those places, and the professors could seriously use a fucking art lesson from the same company that makes "paint by numbers." I mean seriously, just because some introverted reject welds some bullshit metal together, or they smear some paint on a canvas with their fingers or genitals DOES NOT qualify them as artistic genius'. 

Now THAT is feedback. Or maybe it's the scotch talking. But, there in lies my problem - without the hard criticism to flag the shortcomings of my work, how am i supposed to get better? I'll pretty much go in a self-defined direction that could end with me producing the equivalent of some hello-kitty bullshit. Not that I wouldn't mind the revenue from that brand, but I'm not in art to turn a buck. I put up with assholes on a daily basis at work and the street so that I don't have to deal with them in my 'arena of interest'. 

So what do you do? WHAT do you do?

I guess I'll have to continue to be my own biggest critic. And MAN am I an asshole.

m

(Other work - now critique i dammit - shit on it!!!!!!)