Constructive Critiques

One thing that I've really enjoyed about our class this semester is the constructive critiques for our assigned projects. At first I was really nervous to get in front of the class and have them analyze my work but Peter has done a great job of fostering a "safe" environment where everyone's comments help bring out the greatest strengths and unrealized potentials in everyone's pieces. As Stewart suggests, it's best to start by complimenting the strengths in people's work and then move onto suggestions for improvements. This has been the format our class has always followed. It's also interesting that one critique is always different from another. At first we got the opportunity to describe our work before and typically now, we don't. For me, it's always fun to see whether the audience gets the same closure from my pieces that I intended or, if based on their own personal experiences, they see something totally different in my work than I had planned.