Why Criticism is Good for Your Art

yes. you read that correctly

It’s difficult to even spell criticism much less take it! Our natural inclination is that we don’t love it …it can be emotionally painful to hear negative things about your work. As artists, we generally pour our hearts into our creations and so it can feel so personal when someone criticizes your art baby!

After almost 10 years of selling art professionally I learned an invaluable lesson- criticism is an incredibly powerful asset if you learn how to process it.

Here are two experiences I’ve had that taught me this lesson.  

I quit I quit I quit

In my first year of trying to sell my art I brought a piece to a restaurant to see if they’d hang it to sell. I was in this hot air balloon phase and I really did put a lot of time and effort into my pieces because I loved how free and peaceful hot air balloons seemed to be.

Well, it turned out that there was an Italian painter working on a mural at this place I was bringing my art. He saw my art and said:

“NO NO NO dis is all wrong! Dis looks like art of a children! So messy! You need practice! Practice! PRACTICE! Da people…dey see dis and you make reputation for yourself!”

I was devastated! Didn’t he recognize I had a specific style? Couldn’t he see this was my heart on a canvas? I went home and cried and for the first time of many, I considered just giving up painting.

But I didn’t.

I picked myself up and probably out of spite at first, I was determined to show him and others that I could do better. I could grow and learn and yes…practice.

Nobody told her ☹

Now fast forward a few years after the ‘mean Italian painter’. I had worked really hard (and in my garage nonetheless) to improve my techniques and had received some nice accolades.

At that time I happened to meet a woman who said she, too was an artist. I hadn’t seen any of her work yet, but she mentioned that her style was realism and her favorite subject was closeups of flowers. She told me her husband had got her art classes and that he said she had so much talent and she was a wonderful artist.

She then offered to show me a piece she had with her and said:

“now don’t feel bad when you see this- I’m just naturally a very good artist”

She takes this painting out of a trunk and I almost fell over… it was a blurry, splotchy mess of orange and mauve and I could not even tell it was supposed to be a flower!

It hit me in that moment that nobody had told her (or she ignored those that did).

Her teachers and her husband probably just patronized her for years.

I was suddenly grateful to that old Italian painter and to all the other gallery owners over the years who had given me criticism because           I         had        grown.

Now when I post/exhibit a new piece, I love honest feedback from people. I ASK for it. I want to know why they like it or don’t and all their thoughts. I recognize that some of it is just opinions, but I welcome that too. Listen now…sort later.

The bottom line is you can separate your emotions from your craft. You can sift through all the feedback and get a new perspective beyond your two eyes. You can grow. You can be better not bitter.

And if the criticism is coming from an expert in your field-

they are giving you GOLD.

Five tips on how to accept criticism:

1.     View the criticism as a rare opportunity to see your work through a perspective you can’t give yourself.

2.     Let go of your ego- all of us can improve in something and that’s a fundamental truth. It’s ok to fail!

3.     This could be the turning point where you turn stagnation into growth.

4.     Learn the difference between Judgment – the labeling of your work as “bad”- and real Criticism.

5.      Accept it graciously and ask for details ESPECIALLY when its from an expert in your arena.