CRITIQUE REFLECTION

Hi everyone! Today I am going to be addressing the topic of art critiques.

Art critiques are always a part of any arts class, be it visual arts, media arts, dance, or English and literature. For many arts like English, critiques come in the form of edited work where the teacher will receive a draft of your essay or paper and will give certain criticisms of it. In these subjects, critiques usually don’t cause anyone trouble or stress – it’s just a fact of life. However, in some arts like visual and media arts, the critiques are done in real-time, by students, towards other students. For some reason, this experience always has an interesting effect on people. Some students are totally fine with talking about their work and receiving feedback. However, other students find the experience totally nerve-racking and are very nervous to get up and speak about what they have produced. This is probably because the live critique could be classified as public-speaking or as a presentation, and many students miss out on the fact that they are supposed to learn from comments, even if they are negative, so that their future works are even better. Another reason that people may not like critiques is that they are very connected to their work. If they have put a lot of time and thought into the finished product, when their classmates say something negative or bad about their work, they feel hurt as well, because the art is a part of them.

For myself, I have never felt very nervous when doing “public speaking” and I have never had a fear of talking in front of a group of people. I think that is one of the reasons why I am not scared to do a critique. I am usually very comfortable with criticism of my art, but I do sometimes fall into the trap of thinking someone is insulting me if they are just suggesting something that could improve my work. Overall, I am confident when I am talking about my artwork, but this is not just a natural thing. I usually think about exactly what I want to say in my head before going up and getting critiqued. This way, I am not stuttering or nervously trying to think of the right words to use when
I am actually standing in front of the class. Another reason that I am confident in what I am saying is that I put a lot of work into everything thing I do, including my art. So, by the time I am going to hand something in I have fixed it and edited it many times in order to achieve an as close to perfect finished product as possible that is up to my standards.

Finally, I would like to address speaking about others’ work. I am usually fine with speaking about others’ work. Especially when it is a positive comment, I have no problem with telling someone something about their art. When it gets more complicated is when I would like to criticize someone’s work or give a “negative” comment. This is especially hard to do when the person looks very nervous or self-conscious about their work or speaking in front of the class. This is because I don’t want to make them even more nervous or hurt by the comment. That is why I try to phrase my comments in a positive way even if they are giving a suggestion for improvement. Sometimes I feel bad if I give constructive criticism and the person takes it the wrong way or thinks I am attacking them because I sometimes feel the same when someone criticizes my art.