" A GOOD ARTIST IS A SEVERE CRITIC - OF HIMSELF AND, USUALLY, OF OTHERS." (56)

When a gallery owner made the comment that artists aren't good judges of their own work, I had to think about it. I recalled other people saying the same thing.

And I decided that we are the best judges. Are we not the only ones who really know to what degree our communication succeeds in showing our intentions? Being our own, toughest critics, we are less likely to accept the work for its aesthetic qualities alone.

I believe the problem of being too close to one's work to see it objectively, is solved through distancing over time. This is why it's important to have work around to assess and reassess. A year on the wall is a good length of time.

I have been known to rip up some of my best work because at the time I thought it wasn't very good. I've learned to resist this compulsion, to decide its value later. The newest, most innovative, 'stuff' is often disturbing and difficult to accept, even for the artist because it is strange to him.

When I'm still working on a piece I don't like anyone to see it. When it's finished I let a few friends see. Finally, any and all comments and opinions are welcomed from any source.

An important thing happens in this process. A distancing takes place, a slow withdrawal from the work. Immediately upon setting a picture or sculpture out in front of someone, intuition tells me exactly how I feel about it, whether it succeeded or not. I gain an objectivity. From then on my opinions about it seldom change. Some pieces do get torn up.

56. Thomas Albright, On Art and Artists, (U.S.A., The Chronicle Publishing Co., 1989), p. 176

57. Herschel B. Chipp, Theories of Modern Art, (Berkeley and L.A., Cal., University of California Press,1968), p.87