Silence, Philistine! I am an ARTEEST!

Ah, art!  How we love it in all its forms!  Painting, photography, movies or writing - or in Clarke's case arranging plants and playing in the dirt - it's a chance to reach inside the deepest recesses of our souls and extract something not only beautiful, but unique to our selves.  That picture I took - that's a piece of me.  The story I wrote, that's a creation of my mind.

Michelle is discovering her artistic side.  She always knew she liked editing movies and scrapbooking, but now that she's not drenching herself in stress from school and a new job (she's becoming an expert at the ancient art of preschooliyaki by now, a purple belt, I would say) she can invest much time and energy into being creative.  She is also discovering the one thing no artist can avoid - criticism.

Artists love criticism.  "Tell me what is wrong with my creation!" we cry.  "Help me to improve my craft!"

That's right, we artists - we ask for it.  We beg for it.  We throw our work at people and ask them what they think, knowing they will find our little faults and help us not to make those mistakes again.

And then the criticism actually hits.

Seriously?

That's what you think is wrong?  What kind of a heathen are you?  That's the deepest part, which clearly you are lacking the depth to understand.  Did you grow up in a mud hut where your primary educator was a yak?  I should have known better than to trust someone whose idea of an artistic experience is to argue with their little girlfriends over whether or not Twilight is high literature.  You know what, if you don't like my art, go make your own, and then I'll watch and laugh because you're an amateur, and it'll suck.  Then you'll see what my art is worth.

That may seem a little unreasonable, but really!  This art is the brain child of the creator!  Why don't they just take out a big, fat, butcher's knife and stab my first born baby while they're at it!  They've already stabbed my heart which is now soaking my sleeve in hot, red blood while my work - my life - lies broken on the floor.  Clearly, as an artist, I am just misunderstood.  Maybe, like Emily Dickinson, I'll have to die before it's fully appreciated.

Welcome to the world of artistic criticism.

I've had enough of this to get used to it, and to learn how to tone down the "you are a Philistine" knee-jerk reaction, but I was amused to watch Michelle go through it last night.  She knows its value - and admitted thankfully that the completed video for our FHE group (yay Oscars night!) was far better than before the tiny bit of critique, leading to extensive further editing, with which I had skewered her heart.  Sting though it may, she has discovered the value of constructive criticism.

But, there are some things no artist should have to take.

For example, having the "producer" of the movie you are molding and shaping standing over your shoulder, telling you, "You missed a spot."

Maybe I should present a scenario to illustrate this point:

Michelle's mind: "Ooh!  Brilliant!  Heehee, this will be so funny!" *cue bursting with excitement in the wake of inspiration*

Producer:  "What are you doing?!  That's not what I had in mind!  You're taking this in the wrong direction!"

Michelle's mind: *Utter deflation*  "Oh. ... Grrrrrr...."

Seriously, this is just plain artistic sadism!  If you're going to entrust your project to an artist, rather than do it yourself, you'd better be prepared to let that artist do her thing.  Hinder creativity, and you'll get a crap job... partially because creativity is hindered, and partially because you'll infuriate your meal ticket... who therefore throws her hands up and says, "Whatever!  Have it your way!  Tell me what to do, and I'll click the buttons.  Let's see YOUR mind come up with something better."

And for the record, the person telling the artist what to do can NEVER come up with something better.  That's not just my artistic bias - that's real life experience talking there... I've been the "obnoxious director," and it just doesn't work.

So, this is the sad story of a young artist.  Constructive Criticism - yeah.  It doth stink.  And yet, we continue to ask for it!  Again, we bring out our work and ask those four terrible words: "What do you think?"
And, as always, we find out exactly what they think.  And we fume... how dare they... and we get over it... and we realize that maybe, just maybe, they had a point that we might want to consider implementing.  And sometimes, they do!  Sometimes it's an awesome idea, and with a little tweaking, it's just what the project needed.