Critiques

I think learning how to participate in a critique is extremely important. It doesn't just help us understand more about our art and the process but also how to look more carefully at art and understand its many aspects both aesthetic and interpretive. It also teaches students how to give a take feedback, to communicate better with others, and to not take things personally. In any aspect of life it is important to always be asking yourself what you can do to improve, and improving involves learning and changing. Many young artists don't like to hear what they could be doing better and usually take it personally and continue to do the same things they have been doing which doesn't allow them to improve. Critiques are especially important in our class because this is the last chance to really work on our process and style before going off to the next level of art.

To get the most out of a critique everyone needs to be completely honest. No one is going to learn from comments like "that looks so good" or "I like it". The point of a critique is to improve your piece so while it is important to say what is working its also as important to say what isn't working.

Having input from many different kinds of artists and levels of experience are also important to a productive critique. In the end, critiques are simply suggestions to the artist and in the end the artist is the one to make the final discussions about what else to do. Having as many different ideas and perspectives allows the artist to have more to work with.