If ever there are two terms that can drive me bonkers when someone is commenting on my work, it is use of should, and shouldn't.
If someone likes my work, great! If someone hates it, that is fine too as I'd never believe that any artist can achieve universal acceptance. But don't just tell me I need to do something different to make it fit into your view of what is acceptable.
"You should(n't)...
... have obeyed the rule of thirds."
... have shot this in color."
... have printed this high key."
... wait until people press their cheeks together and smile."
... have taken this image with that camera instead."
When I hear any such statements, I can't help but wonder what they really are saying.
"I know I'm better than you because...
...I own the latest digital camera, and use fancy words like 'bokeh.'"
...I've religiously read Ansel Adams."
...my arrogant nature demands it."
...I have a BA in art."
...I've sold more prints than you."
...know how to read MTF charts."
I feel that to tell an artist they need to do something different, is to assert that the artist is completely inexperienced and is in need of guidance. I've been to art openings where I thought that the work was absolute amateur crap and walked away looking like a zombie since the blood rushed out of my face due to the sheer fright I just experience knowing that what I had just seen could be taken seriously. Even in such a situation I would have found it horribly out of place and disrespectful to have approached the artist and say "You should paint with more realism. [Then maybe I'll like your work]" They appeared to happy as a pig in mud over their work. Who am I to take that away from them?
And now to risk being a hypocrite, I do believe that artists shouldn't give a shit what anyone else thinks of their work. If my choices aren't good enough for someone else, too bad, that is their hang up, not mine.
Being a non-religious sort of person, I often feel that photography is my replacement spirituality. Instead of hoping that my soul will live on forever in heaven, I hope that it'll live forever through the imagery that I'll leave behind. My fear is that if I ever cared too much about what other people's expectations for art are, and follow all of the Shoulds and Shouldn'ts out there, that I'll end up doing nothing but selling long exposure photos of waterfall at local arts & craft fairs. At that point, I feel my soul truly would be lost.
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November 1st, 2009 at 6:23 pm
Hells yeah! My favorite post written on this site! I completely agree. If everyone listened to the "shoulds" and "shouldn'ts" the revolutionary artists of history would have never been, well, revolutionary.
November 1st, 2009 at 7:08 pm
While I can't say that my work is remotely artistic (I'm an online marketing nerd) I can still identify with what you're saying here. So much stuff is simply in the eye of the beholder - I have the same issues when someone else tells me how I "should" be doing a campaign for a client. Not their their suggestion is wrong necessarily...but neither is the way I decide to do it, either.
Btw, Dave over at Website In a Weekend reco'd you....love your shots! I was always a writer but couldn't do squat visually, so I'm enthralled with this kind of talent.
November 2nd, 2009 at 8:47 am
Well said. I think moving past whether you like it or not is important. You should be asking yourself questions like what is it in this image that makes it interesting as opposed to not liking the image because the person used the Holga effect during post-processing as instead to using the plastic camera.
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:48 am
On the other hand, at least your work is being seen.
I have never been stung by the words of a critic...and it's not because I'm beyond criticism...more like beneath.
November 2nd, 2009 at 11:18 am
Have you read "The Fountainhead", Kip? I think you'd enjoy the philosophy of the Howard Roark character.
November 9th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
I remember listening to a person comment on one of my lithographs at a group art show I participated in. The guy was tearing up the print, talking about how it wasn't art, since the subject of my art (it was a big portrait of Einstein) wasn't sitting there for me when I created it.
Kinda funny really, I just don't let this kind of stuff bother me. I just smile and nod and say "thanks for looking! I'll think about that".
But yeah, people that tell you what you should or shouldn't do, well, shouldn't.
November 9th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
@Sean. I wonder what he thinks about Dali's paintings. Or even such works as the Sistine Chapel.
November 10th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
@Sean, @Kip, I was just mentioning to someone (Walter?) yesterday (?) that most people can't tell whether art is good or bad, only whether the artist is famous or not.
November 10th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
@Dave Totally can see people doing that. With that type of mentality in existence, I wonder how many other Vivian Maiers are out there never to be discovered because the current owner of the work can't see it for what it is since there isn't a famous name attached to it.