Comments on: Why Critiques Can Never Work: James Elkins’ Perspective, by June Underwood http://raggedclothcafe.com/2008/04/10/why-critiques-can-never-work-james-elkins-perspective-by-june-underwood/ Discussions and ideas about art and textile art Fri, 25 Jul 2008 07:50:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=MU By: lynne http://raggedclothcafe.com/2008/04/10/why-critiques-can-never-work-james-elkins-perspective-by-june-underwood/#comment-1952 lynne Mon, 09 Jun 2008 08:37:47 +0000 http://junomain.wordpress.com/?p=827#comment-1952 as a teacher , I always have an ambivalent feeling about doing crits of my students´ work. How much of it is useful to them? how much is considered just my ramblings? etc, however all togther any serious and sincere discussion about a student´s work is inevitably going to be positive, even by dmeonstarting that I/we are taking the students seriously as artists. Our opinions are always going to be subjective even when we carefullly try to avoid it, we are never really objective but they are still going to give some truths however biased, and will be taken in, even if only to the smallest degree. As a student in art school years ago, I dreaded critique sessions, but there are comments form boht profs and peers, that stayed with me, both positive and negative, and helped me make both good and bad choices. It´s only really looking back, with some distance, that they will ever appear as influential. New ideas are always almost rejected first, before they can be assimilated and then used positively. as a teacher , I always have an ambivalent feeling about doing crits of my students´ work. How much of it is useful to them? how much is considered just my ramblings? etc, however all togther any serious and sincere discussion about a student´s work is inevitably going to be positive, even by dmeonstarting that I/we are taking the students seriously as artists. Our opinions are always going to be subjective even when we carefullly try to avoid it, we are never really objective but they are still going to give some truths however biased, and will be taken in, even if only to the smallest degree.

As a student in art school years ago, I dreaded critique sessions, but there are comments form boht profs and peers, that stayed with me, both positive and negative, and helped me make both good and bad choices. It´s only really looking back, with some distance, that they will ever appear as influential.

New ideas are always almost rejected first, before they can be assimilated and then used positively.

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