Friday, July 5, 2024
A creative act is easy in private. But when you expose your work, look out. What we don’t realize is that we are artwork, expressive masterpieces “exposed.” Your likes, dislikes, traits, and personality are creative acts. Everything is an act, really. But the art show must go on, and to every art show, the critic is invited.
You could think of yourself and everything you did as an object d’art. That way, you could critique your weight, your nose, your vocal timbre, your skin tone, your preferences, your behavior, and whatever else you found off-putting, wrong, or askew. If you couldn’t be objectified, you couldn’t be criticized. But nature is naked. She is as vulnerable as a newborn, bare-assed to the world. Nature doesn’t know it’s subject to criticism; but you can critique the misshapen patterns in marble, the snarl and imbalance of trees, and the “ugliness” of a lobster, with it’s slimy shell, prickly legs, and “alien-looking” eyes. Even with the bad reviews, she continues her loving display.
Art is subject to criticism and may even be encouraged by it. Keep trying to escape the reviews – Google is everywhere. Stay locked up so no-one can critique you; but then, no one could appreciate you. If you’re afraid of the critic, you’re keeping yourself from The Admirer. Even though the critic looks sinister, she is an admirer in a mirrored form. Nature, in all of her so-called imperfections, can’t be improved. Why are you trying to improve a masterpiece? Don’t you see it’s the so-called flaws that make you so wonderful, attractive, and divine? Go ahead, put yourself out there. The critics are par for the course, and necessary. Be bold, be true, be lovingly yourself. Your admirers await; but so do your critics. The trick is to love them both.