half girl half asleep

ive seen some folks lately talkin on NEGATIVE REVIEWS and how to deal with them as authors or artists. personally i have not cared about reviews for several decades. negative reviews do not bother me in the slightest and buds often ask me HOW. ill explain a bit here and why this applies to everyone

first, the reason this matters to more than just authors and artists is because GUESS WHAT WE ARE ALL CREATORS. a book can get one star but so can a walk in the park or a sandwich we made. we are all in a state of critique from the world in some way because we are all creators

to narrow it in on AUTHORS however, ill start with something everyone already knows: ART IS SUBJECTIVE. in the most ZOOMED OUT sense, there is no good nor bad art. there are certainly methods of quantifying like 'is it effective?' 'did it move me?' and these are important but not some COSMIC truth

i think a lot of buds realize this and thats great. they say 'i think my book is FIVE STARS and this buckaroo thinks its ONE STAR but its subjective so it really is neither.' this is a great first step but personally its not ENTIRELY how i look at it (and probably where i will lose some thats fine)

i do not see a one star review of my art and think 'art is subjective so that is wrong'. i think 'art is subjective so that is the truth.' because it is. the subjective nature of art does not just mean everyone is wrong, it also means everyone is right. every takedown of my work is correct

i think there is a power in truly accepting this, not in some 'well let me TURN IT AROUND and use these mean quotes as promo' kind of thing (although that is fun too, trot your trot) but in an almost spiritual way, for lack of a better word. to ACCEPT these many truths is a blessing

theres nothing to be bothered by when you recognize that your creation, whether a painting or song or book, is ALL THINGS. it is not about your art being NEITHER good or bad, it is BOTH good and bad. it is BEYOND quantifying and when you start trying to do that you are simply playing a game

and HEY playin games is fun. reviews and critique are important (they are ALSO art). its a dang treat to be reviewed. BUT in the grand cosmic sense it is still a game of trying to put something ethereal into a coherent shape. there is absolutely no reason to get upset over a game

my ratiorine fwb comic is done! i started this about a year ago and really wanted to challenge myself to illustrate a longer scene with these two, one where you could really see how deeply they care about each other but also their difficulties in putting those feelings into words.