If someone is terrible at art, music, &c--do you tell him or her?

[jpgray]

Poll question: If someone is terrible at art, music, &c--do you tell him or her?

That is, if you are asked for your opinion.

[Cadence]

1. I say yes if it can be done in a constructive criticism

kind of way, as opposed to just trying to be hurtful. But at least it gives them the opportunity to improve or find something they're good at.

[B Calm]

2. Who are you to judge? I always wanted to say that to a judge!

[Maple]

3. No

Every artist and musician in history has been told that...and often went on to found a whole new direction in the field.

[jpgray]

4. Read that back to yourself

You're telling me to prevent the foundation of new directions in art.

:D

[Cadence]

10. LOL. n/t

:D

[Magrittes Pipe]

5. Do you have to defame me in public, asshole?

[jpgray]

6. Yes

Maybe now you'll stop bombarding me with your shitty "art" every god damn day.

x(

[Skittles]

8. why don't you two just get a room?

you act like a married couple :O

[jpgray]

9. We're actually part of a Mormon style Sexagon

It's not your place to ask. And make your :o smiley correct next time. Sheesh. :eyes:

:D

[Skittles]

11. the non-smiley one has a bigger mouth

See? :o :O you two make me go :O with your Sextagon talk :D

[BlueJazz]

7. Speaking of Art

[sendero]

12. "art"...

... is subjective in nature. I know, I know - we all think we know the relative merits of a Velvet Elvis painting compared to a Rembrandt. But still, art is subjective.

NO!

[Kat45]

13. When I wrote for a music mag, bands always asked me what I thought

if I was at their show in a club. I never, ever, told a band that they sucked--though a number of them did. I also never lied to a band. Sounds impossible, but I managed to pull it off, easier than you'd think. Gee, maybe I should have been a politician! :D

[GreenPartyVoter]

14. Depends on whether they are interested in improving... for example

I have to do this sort of thing with writers: http://curvynovels.com/SampleStory.htm

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[msgadget]

15. I was going to say, 'no', Green, because art is personal

and if it's done purely for the artist's enjoyment, there's no harm in letting them have their vision. but, now I'm wondering if honesty would kill or encourage... I guess it depends on if they ask and how.

(I like your site!!)

[jdots]

16. Art ain't Mericun it's anti Christian it's confusin stuff.....

Look what critque did to Adolf........

[TyeDye75]

17. One mans trash is another mans treasure.../nt

[gottaB]

18. Music is a language of the emotions

From an exchange between Miles Davis and Charles Mingus in the pages of Downbeat:

It seems so hard for some of us to grow up mentally just enough to realize that there are other persons of flesh and bone, just like us, on this great, big earth. And if they don't ever stand still, move, or "swing," they are as right as we are, even if they are as wrong as hell by our standards. Yes, Miles, I am apologizing for my stupid "Blindfold Test." I can do it gladly because I'm learning a little something. No matter how much they try to say that Brubeck doesn't swing--or whatever else they're stewing or whoever else they're brewing--it's factually unimportant.

Not because Dave made Time magazine--and a dollar--but mainly because Dave honestly thinks he's swinging. He feels a certain pulse and plays a certain pulse which gives him pleasure and a sense of exaltation because he's sincerely doing something the way he, Dave Brubeck, feels like doing it. And as you said in your story, Miles, "if a guy makes you pat your foot, and if you feel it down your back, etc.," then Dave is the swingingest by your own definition, Miles, because at Newport and elsewhere Dave had the whole house patting its feet and even clapping its hands....

Just because I'm playing jazz I don't forget about me. I play or write me, the way I feel, through jazz, or whatever. Music is, or was, a language of the emotions. If someone has been escaping reality, I don't expect him to dig my music, and I would begin to worry about my writing if such a person began to really like it. My music is alive and it's about the living and the dead, about good and evil. It's angry, yet it's real because it knows it's angry.

I know you're making a comeback, Miles, and I'm with you more than you know. You're playing the greatest Miles I've ever heard, and I'm sure you already know that you're one of America's truly great jazz stylists. You're often fresh in a creative sense and, if anything, you underevaluate yourself--on the outside--and so with other associates in the art. Truly, Miles, I love you and want you to know you're needed here, but you're too important a person in jazz to be less than extra careful about what you say about other musicians who are also trying to create....

http://www.mingus.5u.com/custom.html

[asthmaticeog]

19. Yes, but I don't use the word "terrible."

I used to write reams of criticism for a regional indie rag, which entailed covering the local scene that I myself was an active part of - playing in bands, putting shows together, the whole local-underground booster shebang. I'd always hated writers who would cheerlead lame crap just because it was from Cleveland, so I wound up dissing my friends in print when they did something that I deemed inferior. I didn't want to be totally alienating, so I phrased things diplomatically, never "this sucks" or "so-and-so is a suck keyboardist," but addressing specific aspects of the recording or performance that weren't up to snuff by the standards the group had set for itself. If a band was irredeemably shitty (like a blatant Pearl Jam clone or whatever), *then* I'd just say so, but if there was a kernel of something interesting going on, I'd give benefit of the doubt that it maybe just needed work.

[Bridget Burke]

20. I agree--give an opinion, but there's no need to be cruel....

If someone is just painting or playing for their own pleasure, I'll be polite & pleasantly vague.

But if they want to get paid for their work, constructive criticism is in order. I'd encourage their strong points & make tactful suggestions for the rest.

If they really are "terrible"--fleeing before the break is a good idea.