The Habits of Mind: Judge Art More Informed

Art can move and inspire us or cause us to recoil away. Yet, we silently judge other people's art. But, are we doing so with an informed eye? Here we explore how to critique art with an informed understanding of the creative process and what to look for that we may have missed at first glance.

As Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg once stated, "One aspect of appellate judging is we have to give reasons for all of our decisions and when you sit down and try to write it out, sometimes you find that your first judgment wasn’t the right one!”

MUSIC:
“Dreamcatcher (Pretty Wings)” by M.D. Campbell (aka Me & Boris the Bull)
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The intent of my channel is to bring useful content to the art community with insightful information, unique and interesting concepts, motivational discussions, and real-world reviews on the products artists are likely to buy and use every day.

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I'm grateful for your time spent watching and for your feedback to help improve my channel. Please feel free to start a conversation below.

Thank you and best wishes in all your creative endeavors! ~ Mark

[shaynedavisartanddesign]

Loved the video and essay. Beautiful image.

[LanaGoesArt]

Hi Mark, another wonderful video of yours. I wish you were one of my art teachers in school. Those points make so much sense and it would be great if this aproach to art projects would be taught everywhere. Or to any projects. Thank you so much!

[CautionArtistatPlay]

So many great talking points, Mark! ❤

[octoberlassie]

An excellent, helpful video as always. I had an art teacher in high school who graded mainly on how realistic our paintings looked. She demotivated all but one student. She left though, and her replacement saw things much more like you, and everyone began working a lot better because their effort was recognised. Thanks for the great video!

For me the vertical bars turned greyish and when I looked to the side of the yellow parts I saw the bars in bright purple - very interesting. I know such "games" but I wouldn't have tried the staring exercise without your hint 🙂 I still don't really like that kind of painting but I'd never disparage it. That's what I really dislike in some commenters on art(sy) channels, they have an attitude as if the content creater has to do only what suits the commenter's style and how dare the creators if they don't do that. Out comes the threat of "unsubscribe" 🤣
My favorite part of your drawing/painting is the girl hanging on the fishing rod doing the observing part. I hope I understood that correctly. Even if I didn't, I like the whole thing 😍
Thank you for the interesting "TED talk" 🥰

[robineliason]

Oddly, I could not get the purple illusion, no matter how long I looked, but the yellow bard did start to take on a motion and sort of dance in front of my eyes. No idea.
As to the pass/fail grades, the high school I went to worked on that system in all classes (progressive school, late '70s). At first, yeah, I was kinda irked because I was putting in work that others weren't, yet we were all passing. Then, I began to realize that it allowed for a great deal of freedom and room to experiment that I would not have if every thing was graded on points and counted for a final grade. I was heavily into creative writing at that time, so that is where I noticed the effect the most, but I noticed it in other classes, as well. It allowed for a more interdiciplinary approach to learning, allowed for the forming of connections between things that I would have never seen had I been striving for high marks in my classes. When I finally went to college, in my thirties, I took everything I could on a pass fail option because I found I hated having to worry about a GPA, it interfered with my learning. This did not work with classes in my major, of course, but all electives and distributions I took pass/fail. And, somewhere along the way, I stopped caring what others were or were not doing, that my only competition was myself.
I love all of the evaluation points you bring up here. I am going to take another run through this, after I have had a bit of time to think, to catch what i missed on the first run.
And, on a totally unrelated note, I have found I have a new hobby lately -watching other artists work. Yes, I do it in part to see if there is anything I can pick up from their techniques to incorporate into my own work, but I find it an entertaining process over and above any take-aways I might get. I love seeing the process of creation, of seeing something take form under someone's hands.
As always, a thought provoking and informative video, thank you for sharing it.

[ismailabdelhamid]

Dear mark, yes I enjoyed the video so much. It is really on how to see the work of others but we have to change our glasses. I mean we have to change our way of thinking. For me, art is fun and happiness. Happy to see others innovative pieces and their way of thinking and expressing. For sure I need more than 30 min to understand the yellow rectangles and it may take my entire life to understand but it deserve the tray to understand. The video today is remarkable but the subject you raised take us from the wounderful draw you made and illustrate in the video. I am feeling happy after I watch the video... thank you very much Mark.

[GingahSnapsArt]

Another excellent video Mark! These are reminders I think we all need time and again.

[sketchingwithscot]

Often people say don't compare yourself to others. I always compare myself to others. I compare myself to the best artist on the planet otherwise how would I improve?