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Fuck, my crits always go so well! Even when I don't have anything to say--things get discussed that are really, really important to me.

Today, I asked the instructor what he'd thing if I had decided to present prints of digital work as finished work. I explained to him an idea I had of doing some pretty vast sequential work--and that it would be impossible to do it traditionally with the time constraints of class--but that I would be able to do it within an efficient amount of time if I could do it digitally.

In short, he told me it was fine--but that word I've dreaded so much came up while he was explaining this to me--and that word was "criticality". "Your work must hold criticality".

To be totally honest, instructors have used this word for my entire three years here at the college--and I had no idea what exactly it entailed. And so I assumed that it meant the work needs to hold some kind of critical meaning--or be a critical analysis of something. Which honestly--I dislike presenting in my own work--quite a bit.

But I've had issues in that past with making poor assumptions, and for once decided to ask him exactly what was meant by 'criticality'.

Turns out, my assumptions were incorrect.

He told me that criticality did mean the work needed to hold some deep meaning, or be an active analysis of something. Criticality merely means that the work knows what it is, and why. That the artist can talk comfortably about the work, understanding the connotations of its medium, discuss an understanding the history of such work and explain why they are making such work.

All of which I can do quite easily.


Man, you have no idea--what kind of weight was taken off my shoulders.

He said--any work I do in my free time--I shouldn't hide from my in school practice, and that it's a shame I felt the need to do so. If there's a type of work I like doing--that I understand and love working with--that I should claim it, and do it full speed ahead. That he agreed no type of work should be shunned over the other, especially when it is done well and presented professionally. He says work should challenge conventions and expectations--and that it's what art school should be all about.

I was left really, really impressed--and really quite thankful and relieved for this explanation--this clarification.
Man--you have no idea.

What a fantastic crit.
They've all be kind like this--I ask questions of concerns, he answers them with full support, and I leave feeling really, really good, and quite enlightened.
This has been a fabulous semester so far--and next semester for sure, I'll be a new beast in the painting studios >:]

In the meantime, this was the work that I hung up for the critique haha (it's bigger than it looks...and more straight.):



This guy was my favorite (poor photo quality lolol):