karen cooper - Blog: critique

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We All, (well, almost all) Need The Critique

by Cooper on 9/1/2010 8:11:22 AMComment on this

Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio, Jefferson, Iowa, where our exteriorscape was once again, washed fresh and clean, last night. Sometimes you just need refreshed, right?

In that vein of thought, let's talk about critique. Surely you know that you need to know what needs refreshed before you can refresh it.

I subscribe to ArtCalendar magazine on line, and opened up the new issue, to the editorial written by Kim Hall, who in talking about the college art course critique said:

"but I miss what the criticism did for me: It pushed me to be better than I was the day before. Once we leave that kind of enviroment, whether it's a formal college classroom or the tutelage of an artist-mentor, it is easy to forget how important it is to challenge ourselves."

In my mind, chiming in, was a recent article at FASO, speaking of artists who walk into an art gallery, dismiss the work of masters hanging all around, and blithely tell the gallery director that their own work is the best he'll/she'll ever see. Said artist would be missing, or pointedly ignoring the fact that they have ever so far to go to be gallery ready. Maybe some folks just don't see the value of a good self critique?

Monday I happened to be driving through DesMoines (Iowa), home to KavanaughArtGallery. They have a massive collection of paintings---according to the owner, over 6,000. Among the 6,000 paintings are several works by Mikhail and Inessa Garmash, breathtakingly wonderful works, I might add. Here's a link to one of my favorites:

http://www.kavanaughgallery.com/M_I_GSweet_Afternoon.jpg.html

I was at the gallery about an hour, but definitely an hour well spent. I came away awed by the work I had viewed, humbled by the realization that my own meager attempts paled in comparison, BUT inspired to give getting there, a heck of a good try, just the same. Call it self critique, or critique by the art of M and I Garmash, or maybe even critique by KavanaughGallery, but Monday was critique day. And it was good. Time to go find a paint brush. Have a lovely day!

Later, Cooper

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