While in art school, I was so intent on getting accepted into the design program and becoming a worthy graphic designer, that it wasn't until many years after graduating from art school that I realized what I really got was an education in how to live life well.
When I was a collegiate art student, the majority of my class time was spent in critiques. Although art is subjective, core principles exist that can be used to determine the success of any work of art regardless of media or genre (realism, impressionist, abstract). Those core principles include things such as composition, draftsmanship, use of color and value, balance, rhythm, to name a few. Although the application of those core principles were the focus of our critiques in design class, there were so many more lessons, important lessons, lessons for a life well lived.
Objective critiques can be tough. Tough to give and tough to take. Yet, critique is a way of life. It's how we improve at our craft, and improvement makes it reaffirming. As art students, we not only learned how to evaluate artwork, but how to offer up our assessment in a positive and helpful manner. We were encouraged to use the sandwich method by putting the "what needs improvement" between "here's what is working" before and after. This bit of wisdom made all the difference in conducting a successful class with engaged and productive students.
