Self-Critique
Journal Entry: Monday, September 12, 2022
In order for an artist to advance along their trail self-disciple and self-mastery is required. This is usually accomplished through a process of self-critique. However, self-critique for many can become a form of self-flagellation. This negative approach hinders rather than helps your process. Self-critique is a process of looking for possible ways to improve one’s process and hence one’s outcomes, not a way to punish oneself.
In the process of critiquing one’s work it is a good idea to reserve judgement for quite some time and just keep working until one has produced enough of a body of work to compare the individual works to each other. Once observing this group of works it is much easier to compare and contrast. In this process one can ignore looking for flaws and rather look for trends and motifs and try to understand the inner trail that your creative mind, your intuitive mind is attempting to follow. Our conscious self is the discerner but not the maker of the works, the making come from a deeper version of ourselves that we are often only barely conscious of.
When critiquing one’s work it is helpful to approach it like something you just dug up in an archeological site that you are trying to understand. What can you deduce from the work? What is implied or hidden in the work? Think of it as a puzzle. Look at it as if you didn’t make it. Don’t personally identify yourself with it. Just observe it as it is, not in comparison to the ideal you are hoping to reach. Compared to an ideal, all things fall short.
“Creativity is what happens when the intellect stops working and starts playing.”
The process of creativity is one that works best based on an attitude of play rather than labor. If we are always coming to our creative process with the idea that it is laborious work then we will, quite naturally, abandon it at some point in favor of other activities that bring us more joy and recreation. Approached as play, joy and recreation become the resulting feeling rather than worry and trepidation.
Yes, there is laborious work often involved in working out one’s creative vision but if it is approached with curiosity, aroused interest and the joy of accomplishment then the difficult effort involved does not become the resulting impression of having worked at it. All forms of play require exertion and possibly more exertion than working. Therefore, if your working process for your creative expression is not yielding a feeling of joy then, as critique, a question might be: How can I change my approach or my attitude so that working feels like play?
Self-critique is not about beating up on oneself, it is about asking questions. How can I fix this problem? How can I improve this technique? What do I like about this or that part of the composition? Why to I prefer this to that? Critique is inquiry, a detailed analysis and assessment of you work, process, approach. Not for self-deprecation, but for self-improvement – to get better and more masterful at playing.
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What is your experience with self critique? Comment below.
When I was a young aspiring artist I was much more self critical often to the point of not being satisfied with anything I did. That was frustrating and debilitating. That was one reason why I took up collage. Then I was just composing with material that I didn't make and that attracted me. I figured out how to not beat myself up.
This is a subtle and thoughtful piece. I teach songwriting and a similar approach to critique that involves faithfully reporting your listener's experience with the song. The hardest thing in songwriting where the content is often so personal, autobiographical, is hearing your song as a listener will hear it, as if you didn't write it. That's related to but not the same as simple non-judgmentalness. Do you have any techniques specific to visual art to cultivate that sense of jamais vu, of "this is not mine"-ness?