Rebecca Rafferty

Rebecca talked about how she isn't interested in pleasing the artist or audience by simply praising the work, but rather she wants to start a discussion. This often times ends up offending someone, especially the artist if something negative is said about his/her work. As a result, Rebecca feels that at times there are grudges being held against her. It seems that she is in a difficult situation where she is being looked at as an art critic, rather than a writer writing about art. This made me think about the art world in general, and how I feel like you have to either be on an artist's side or not. I think the reason that this happens is because as an artist you are putting yourself in a vulnerable position, so it is easy to take offense to comments that come off as negative, but are really meant to start a discussion. As an artist myself, I try to maintain a calm attitude that remains open-minded to all comments on my work because I think it's important to consider the pro's and con's from the audience as part of the discussion on anything that you make and call art. While it's important to be accepting of a viewer's thoughts, I think an artist also has to stand firm in his/her's beliefs and point in what they do and why they do it.

Magdalena