humm

[balaa]

There are days where I am puzzled by people and others that they amuse me with their 'quirks'. Soooo this guy who left me a comment on dev..and I assume he is a guy(no offense) because I have seldom met such a flagrantly and overly pompous and arrogant self wrighteous person that wasn't a guy. I have a feeling he might even be a somewhat good looking guy and as such has often gotten his way and only been assured of his status as an all knowing being. Kinda sad but true how so many people get away with acting 'intellectual' and I say acting because they like to use big words and elaborate phrases to describe their otherwise stale ideas/thoughts. As I said in my last post regarding this he does indeed think himself quite clever and went on to extoll his supposed dealings in the art world. 1. he is an art critic and for the most part I hate people like this because they themselves do not have any talent or skill...or parade around with the illussion of talent. The comment that he left that gave me some insight into the person he is *eyeroll* He claims to have helped unknowns become knowsn, studied and taught art historye etc...:


"I didn't say you can't draw. I said just because you can doesn't mean you should.

I had fun spending the time. I got pretty creative, don't you think?

Why is this site called 'Deviant' art? The dictionary defines 'deviant' as: One that differs from a norm, especially a person whose behavior and attitudes differ from accepted social standards.

I thought I had found a great art site, but seems I have just found a bunch of wannabes patting themselves on the back for feat of 'hurting anyone's feelings' while treading water in a sea of mediocrity.

Take a sencond read of my commends. I don't have have only negative things to say. I've got about 10 years of art / art history / art teaching at two different universities in two countries. You may find my comments arrogant and rude, but you'd be foolish not to agree with them and or follow any advice you may find within them.

In my spare time I visit galleries and online site like this looking for 'undiscovered art' - I form relationships with talent that has not marketed itself properly and jump start successful careers. I have sold other people's work that they could not otherwise give away. It is not uncommon that pieces that I am interested, where previous to my efforts are basically worthless, sitting in the artists studio, are sold for thousands of dollars to private collectors in the US and abroad.

If I want to be deviant and a little bizarre, then so be it. Name a famous artists that didn't have radical personality 'defects' 0 you can't. Jackson Pollack - incorrigible drunk. Andy Warhol - bizarre, bizarre, Picasso - notorious womanizer, Michelangelo - rumored to have been a fetishist... You are right, deviant are doesn't need trolls who have only made negative comments to the community. I'll wait for you to submit me a positive response before I judge you a fool I guess. As far as art being art whether I like it or not - that's fine. But art that I like is usually good art and art that I don't like is more often than not just plain bad. There is a distinction between good and bad art. It is NOT completely subjective. In an ideal utopia where no one ever gets their feelings hurt, I would be wrong. But we live in a commercial. Your life is for sale whether you like it or not. We all whore ourselves out at an hourly rate in order to make enough money to feed ourselves, pay rent, buy clothing and art supplies right? It is not my fault that 90% of the time, good art fetches top dollar and 'bad' art ends up in a poster frame at the mall. A few interesting caveats to this principle are: Thomas Kincade, the richest and simultaneously WORST artist of all time, and Wyland - painter of undersea creatures and landscapes, along with the hundred or so copycat contemporaries of both of these artists. There are countless others, perhaps you will become one. "

ROFLMAO. Im not sure how many folks here have studied art history but ive dabbled as I feel it is my duty to study those who came before me and perhaps someday build on what they left for us. The person this guy rather reminds me of is an author and art critic, Robert Hughes, whose textbook I had the misfortune of reading('The Shock of the New'). My professor at the time chose the book for a veerrrry interesting purpose, to find out who were the thinkers and who were the followers. Most of the folks in my class were good people, nice people but I couldnt believe how easily they swallowed this guys 'opinions's as facts. The book enraged me. I wanted to find the guy and claw out his eyes and beat him with his own talentless lifeless hand. In the end she ended up admitting that what she wanted to accomplish in using his textbook was to make people think for themselves to make them MAD to make them yell and scream at the textbook as they read it. I DID yell abnd scream at the textbook. I hated it with a fiery passion by the time the class ended...but somehow I am glad I read it from cover to cover and some excerpts over and over. I am glad because it made me question my notions of art, made me question the thoughts I had formulated as a result of what was forced onto me in my schooling. (The ideas in the book were much like this guy's words, dressed up with fancy jargon, biiig useless words and inflated opinions that in his mind could be nothing short of facts. His ideas of art were flat, one dimensional, and ommitted many many artists I considered brilliant moving forces of the art of the 20th century. Women artists were heavily ommitted and when mentioned were given a dull half paragraph excerpt...)

SO this guy is rather amusing to me. He thinks he is toying with me when rather he is giving me a giddy giggle. He assumes that just because I draw whimsical sketches of felines must mean I am a mindless drone, a product of the commercial age. He assumes that I do not study, I do not question, I do not grow. There is much in my personal career as an artist I want to accomplish. Not to show the world, not to revolutionize thinking as such...but for me...for the inner craving to create. I often lay at night wondering what art is, what it is to me, why I do what I do and what I want to accomplish in the future. Im not a one dimensional figure that he has painted me into being, which is just as well because I rather not strive to 'prove' something to someone of the sort. I see people like this man as insects on the wall of art. They appoint themselves some sort critic and yet what right have they to critique what they cannot understand. His gallery amuses me to. I wont make fun of it as such, it just reminds me of art movements like DADA that in one sene just make you laugh because so much of it is this intellectual slop..the "You cant posssiibbly understand me" type shit. HAHA!

Im so sorry that I am a down to earth person that find enjoyment in the simple things of life. So what if I wont be well known, I don't care. My goals in life are not the aquisition of money and oooh aaaaaah the prestige of my art ending up in the Louvre. There is so much art that I studied that I couldnt help but find empty. The critics that wrote about it made it seem like such godly work and yet set all the popular hooplah aside and some of these artists had no true art skill. All they could do was paint geometric shapes..tell them to draw a human figure..could they? hell no. Now there are artists that were considered odd that I do respect. Picasso for one, his skill was not simply in cubism or his color periods. He was an intensly talented artist who first learned the trades of realism before he became an abstract artist. Thats one of those things I often dont understand about abstract art..some of the artists have no ability to do anything else than the abstract. Well Im sorry in my eyes thats not talent. You should be disciplined first in the basic skills of drawing/painting before you should move to the abstract..theeeeeen I will respect your work. And people like this one guy are the type that like to think themselves 'deeeep, think they seeeee more than others. Fine an untrained eye will see a painting like Guernica as dark, weird and hard on the eyes...but in order to understand you have to know more than what some book says about it. You have to understand where the artist was coming from, who they are, where they started.

For that matter who is one person to say what art is to another? His preconceived notions are fine, he is just as entitled to them as I am to my own. However, this particular individual, decides to take it upon himself to be the 'joan of arc' of art(going off some higher power that only he hears in his fat head)...though his motives in his eyes are wrighteous in mine are self serving and pointless. He decides to go about and be 'devious' or outside the norm. I cannot stand people who tryyyy sooo hard to be someone unique but without realizing it are nothing. Bashing others and shoving your ideas down their throat, assuming you know them because you looked at one piece of their art, is nooottt being unique. It is being callous, cold and plain and simply a JERK.

Now the more he writes the more I find myself chuckling quietly. If he goes on pissing people off and moreover dirtying my picture with his foul mouth, I guess Ill report him to deviant for harassment. They can do what they will with him, I could care less. Like many he doesn't know the difference between freedom of speech and just plain harassment. I know I will come across many people like this in my life. So be it...I choose to not be like them. I give them the freedom to their 'art' as long as they leave mine alone.

Goodnight Robert Hughes.

Comments

[alaitallon.livejournal.com]

Interesting. You seem to say I'm "wrong about Balaa's work" a lot. I understand that you're her friend and will always protect her, but I'm trying to look at this from an objective position to see where the guy was coming from. And I never said Balaa was lacking in artistic detail. Certainly not. However, while her art is great eye candy, it doesn't tell me much. The characters are often sitting and staring off into space, something most felines rarely seem to be doing. Few of them are running, jumping, climbing, sleeping, eating, falling, laughing, crying, etc. Few are interacting with each other, their environment, or even themselves. Do you see what I mean? Detail and beauty can be conveyed in ways other than just portraits. For example, take a look at Ursula Vernon's art. She's not a TLK artist by any means, but she does a lot of animal art. Every one of her pictures tells us a story. These, for example:
http://www.deviantart.com/view/21344473/
http://www.deviantart.com/view/19676807/
http://www.deviantart.com/view/18881658/
http://www.deviantart.com/view/12791896/
http://www.deviantart.com/view/18069793/

These are all great examples of lovely art AND lovely presentation. While admittedly none of these are commissions, this doesn't mean that commissions have to be simply portraits. I like to try new things when I do art for people. In fact, the art I do for others usually ends up better than any of the art I do for myself. Unless the person specifically tells me, "I ONLY want a standing and looking at the camera pose," then I try to go beyond what's expected. My recent picture of Shetani or my picture of Sami, for example.

Also, I fail to see how his words are so terrible and awful and hateful. Trust me. Go to an art school and you'll find far worser critics than this guy. There are art teachers who will rip art off the wall and demand you start over if it's not up to his standards. Yeah, it can hurt. But your art is not you. As much as you treasure and cherish your artistic creations, your art is not you. There is no need to take it so personally when someone dares to criticize it, no need to run and hide and leave the internet, as you said. As the anonymous person said, I'd like to hope this person would help others grow a thicker skin. So WHAT if he criticizes art? So WHAT if he's full of himself? If he honestly has absolutely nothing that you can learn from, then don't pay him any mind. Getting all upset over it is useless. It doesn't help anyone.

Also, the person never told her to change her style, as far as I could tell. He never told her to turn into Picasso or Dali or whatever. I'm not saying she should change her style either. It's fine how it is. What the guy was critiquing was the USE of that style. Like I said earlier, Thomas Kinkade does technically gorgeous pieces, but his art is utterly without any soul. It's just the same cottage with flowers over and over and over again. Always the same theme and never any risks taken or deviations from his norm. There's a quote I usually like to mention when I talk about this. It goes:
"He found a formula for drawing comic rabbits,
And the formula for drawing comic rabbits paid,
But in the end he could not change the habits
That the formula for drawing comic rabbits made.
--Robert Graves"

In any case, I'm not trying to bring Balaa down or make her cry or upset her or make her stop drawing. Not at all. I would LOVE to see her grow as an artist. I would LOVE to see her try new things and apply her great talent to even greater ideas. Like I said, it's so easy to fall into the trap of sticking to what we're comfy with. We're not going to grow if we don't take risks.

[nanook123.livejournal.com]

It doesn't matter in this case what anyone thinks. If I say "Critique not wanted" then people should respect that. This idiot didn't, so he deserves what he gets.

*fumes*

[alaitallon.livejournal.com]

Wow, way to totally dismiss my thought-out, civil reply. But whatever. It's not my loss. If you want to dismiss me as quickly as you dismissed him (even though I wasn't talking about you but to Balaa), then go ahead. I won't waste my breath on deaf ears anymore. *shrugs*

[xxbalaaxx.livejournal.com]

To you my work may lap depth and dimension in the areas you seek to find it, to me it holds meaning, to me everything I do I always try to take a stride forward and try something new with each piece, however minimal, hower insignificant to my viewers. Yet with each new piece I do grow. I never once claimed to be an accomplished artist, but rather I know myself to be a student of art and more than certainly I will forever remain a student of art. I did not approach his comment with anger, quite the contrary really. It did not upset me, but I posted this here to figure out for myself what it meant to me..if anything.

NO ONE can know what it is that goes on through my mind. The reason I discourage critique is because more often than not I know my own shortcomings and work towards building in the areas I am lacking. We all have things that cut us deeply and sometimes comments concerning my work cut me deeply. It is not of my choosing to let some of these comments to hurt me, rather quite the contrary. I tell myself not to get hurt, not to get angry to build and learn from it. But sometimes no matter how much you train yourself, when that which is closest to your soul is bashed..it can truly hurt.

And yes I do see it as harassment in this case, and ironically not altogether towards me personally. When critique is discouraged people should respect my wishes. Otherwise I have every right to be upset by it. I do not force my opinions unto anyone else. My reasons for creating may be different from anothers, my definition of meaning and depth different from yours. What to you is lacking in my work, may not be the same as another person says.

I know the areas I am lacking in, I know that without it being told to me because I do see art as an ever evolving process of growth, success and failure. There are many talented artists I can think of that discourage critique and the reason is simple...we are already our own worst critic. We seek the flaws in our work and aim to find ways to correct those shortcomings in our future projects.

With my work I do not seek to get patted on the back or have masses of people gasping in awe. I do not seek to land my work in museums or even necessarily be remembered after I die. My goals are different. As long as my work brings someone joy, including me, as long as what I do never bores me, as long as someone feels something as a result of seeing my work...then my time has not been wasted.

[alaitallon.livejournal.com]

Thank you for giving me a mature response and respecting my opinion for what it's worth. (I'm not being sarcastic by saying that, by the way . . . I really do appreciate it) I'm just so used to artists hating to be criticized simply because they only want sugar-coated things that I just assumed that was also the case for you. So many artists online get their egos wounded so easily. I did not know that the reason you didn't want critique was because you already know your problems (though no one can possibly see everything that's wrong with their work . . . our view of our own art is always far too subjective). Again, I did not comment on this to hurt you or upset you. I just really hate it when people receive criticism and get all upset and immediately dismiss it as the person being a jerk or something (with countless fans all jumping in and agreeing). I've been criticized before, and I agree that it can hurt. But once I realized that my art is NOT my precious baby that I have to protect from anything slightly negative and is NOT connected to me through an umbilical cord, it was a lot easier for me to take critique. I KNOW my art has a lot of shortcomings. I know there are parts of it that are downright bad. That doesn't make me want to not hear any criticism ever again, though. There's always going to be someone out there who sees something I DON'T see. That's why I have people beta-read my stories . . . Even though I've gone through them several times looking for errors, there's always going to be things I overlook that pop right out when someone else reads it.

I guess the main reason I'm telling this to you is because it's been told to me many times. I've been told my own work is static or dull or "lacking depth" and it really hurt at the time and I ran back to my LJ friends for comfort, but now that age has seasoned me a bit since then, I realize that they really had a point. I'm caught in that awful rut of drawing what makes me comfortable. I'd rather not see an artist with your potential fall to the same fate.

Good luck, Balaa. Thank you again for listening to me rather than just brushing me off. I hope we understand each other a bit more now.

[xxbalaaxx.livejournal.com]

I realize your words were not meant to heart, but you see that is the difference between you and the person who left those comments. Where some people come in and negatively criticize my work with words and suggestions that can actually help me stremgthen the foundation of my own work, others come in with nothing more than the intent to wound. Perhaps that was not this person's intent, but the feeling I get is he saw this one picture and assumed several things 1. that this is the pinnacle of my artistic career, that Ive been doing the same thing for years and years and 2. he assumed I was nothing more than a shallow artist comfortable in my set ways. Both assumptions are wrong. I realize there have been a lot of pieces in my work that focus on realism and perhaps to some they are dull lifeless pieces. To me different things in a picture can tell a story. Elements of a character, the colors use, the background, etc can likewise tell a story. I personally feel magnetically drawn to eyes and thus far I have been heavily focusing on exploring ways to paint the eyes in which they themselves portray depth and draw the viewer in. I doubt very much I have mastered it but the more I draw them the more I find myself improving on the methods of rendering them and moreover understanding how light itself plays off the eyes. Perhaps I am strange in that the smallest facets of art really fascinate and tickle my interests, eyes have ALWAYS been one of those things.

Now what upset me about this man was that he made all this critique without building a foundation for his argument. Maybe if I had been doing this same type of portrait kitty work for years and years and my work becomes redundant, fine perhaps then I would have seen his words to argue a valid point. However, supposing he is a seasoned resident of the artistic community, he should have taken the time to browse my gallery and furthermore perhaps find out a little more about the artist themselves before he casts down a judgement weighed in iron. I have been attempting realism in the digital medium for about a year now, since that is about the length of time that I have had my tablet and photoshop. For most of that year I saw nothing but failure, but I continued to work at what I wanted to achieve. Only now and I seeing myself actually accomplish what I wanted to do, and even now I know I have a lot of room to grow.

Also I dont tend to keep my work to myself and bathe it in false praise, but rather I do discuss my work with others, usually before I go to color it.(and for that matter I often go through 3 or 4 sketches of the same thing before I work the kinks out). The people I go to are those I trust not to sugar coat what they see in my work. Because they know me, they know I expect them to be honest. But also they know how to tell me what I need to hear, without tearing out my will to create. I feel confident in their advice and so I continue letting them help me grow. That is another reason I usually do not ask for critique on dev. Also for the simple fact that when critique was allowed, all I received were hallowed out husks of what could resemble critique. It did me no good and rather more hurt, and as such I figured I might as well stick to my old methods.

Trust me, I will be the first to stare at my own picture and meticulously pick out the mistakes..(In fact I do..and the same with my real media work. I will set my recently finished piece at my wallpaper and sometimes just sit and stare at it to find my shortcomings....but also my strengths. As for real media, I will hang them over my bed or across from my bed where basically that is the first and last thing I see before I go to bed. I find after about two days I start going insane XD and have an insatiable urge to pour gasoline over the piece and watch the wicked thing burn!) But I do realize that the flaws I see are not necessarily what other folks pick up on, so I do go to those trusted for further critique.

[xxbalaaxx.livejournal.com]

As for the countless fans jumping in to bash the person, I did not ask for it...though I admit in retrospect I probably should have not said where the comment was posted or to which piece. I suppose I was foolish in the fact that I figured no one would say anything to the person but me...(and even that I should have kept my own mouth shut as well XD..live and learn). However, like I said...I posted it in lj to guide myself through my own thought process more than anything.

Good luck to you as well Tallon, continue with your own work as with each new piece we all continue to grow as people and artists.

[(Anonymous)]

It really isn't my place in Balaa's journal to care about what you say. You dismissed my point about the whole critique thing, so why can't i dismiss yours? I mean...the point of it is Don't if it says DON'T. The guy didn't care, you didn't seem to care.

Aye, I will always seem to protect my friend, I love her very much and she is one of the only things that tether me to this ever emotional rollercoaster that is internet art. Once again, why I don't upload much anymore, I only stick around to look and to offer my opinion. Though being an artist, maybe I know how to deliver news of an ill fated piece better than some. But I always do it with tact and dignity.

I blame nothing on my rather short reply to your last comment. I'm just a bitch when it comes to talking in circles. I refuse to reitterate the same point over and over, because my efforts become futile when no one is willing to look on your side to see that you truely do have a point.

*SHRUGS TOO*

[nanook123.livejournal.com]

that was me...for some reason i got logged out...

[alaitallon.livejournal.com]

Gah, derned LiveJournal. X_X I hate it when it does that. In any case, I replied to the anonymous one before I saw this one here. *kicks LJs mistakes* ^_^ Sorry about that.

[alaitallon.livejournal.com]

I didn't "just dismiss it," though. Just because I didn't address it again doesn't mean I dismissed it. I agreed that you had a point about that, so I didn't choose to contend it. However, the point of my commenting in the first place wasn't, "Well, it doesn't matter that he commented on you." It was that, wanted or not, HE HAD A POINT. My replies no longer focused on just this incidence but instead the meaning of it. Balaa was obviously perturbed by the comment left, so it was my intention to help her make sense of it and see it as something helpful rather than something hurtful. But if you're going to be "a bitch" about people trying to offer help (help that isn't even directed to you, but to your friend, who actually respected what I had to say), as I said, I don't have to keep wasting my breath on this. I'm not going to sugar-coat anything here. It's so easy for us to get used to only, "OMG AWESOME!" comments and unending praise because so few people are willing to go against the majority and say, "Hey, there are parts of this that aren't so great, but it would be really cool if you could learn from them." Sorry I was that one unlucky person who chose to go against the flow. I honestly have no hard feelings against either of you, but I am getting a little frustrated with people's lack of the ability to look at where I'm coming from when I take the time to look at where you're coming from.

Why did she say, "Hey, no critique" on it anyway, out of curiosity? It's understandable to want to turn it off on something that's a deeply personal piece (like a memorial) or something that's just a little doodle, but why reject critique that you can learn from? Like I said earlier, even when we think we know all of our flaws, there's always going to be someone who will see something we don't see. I know that's not the issue here, but I was curious, since she claims she does want to grow as an artist. :)