I 20F was in college for biology at the time however I love art so I minored in it (a later changed my major) but for the sake of the story I used to be biology major. This was an introduction to draw in class and multimix media and I was so happy in it. Every single time I was drawing I was in my own little world doing what my heart desired and I loved it. Now on these projects I would do well All things considered. People would regularly come up to my earpiece and ask me how I did certain things so they could incorporate it into their pieces. People would ask me about my art styles and my shading and I would get constant compliments which made me happy and very appreciative. Now in every single art class you have to have a critique and we would have classified critiques where our professor would show everyone your art however many people would try to critique your art but if you got too many compliments or weren’t getting enough critique the professor would go more in depth about his rebuttals always in a kind manner. When it came to me people would tend not to critique to heavily I would get constructive criticism yes but a lot of my pieces were met with compliments (teasing about me not being an art major) and overwhelming positivity.
Now this is where the person I was talking about comes in. I’m fully aware that I need critique to grow and it makes me happy to get it and I love getting it. However, this person would always find ways to critique me specifically. She would always have something to say about my pieces specifically. Like literally no joke it would get through three people complimenting me and she would go closer to my piece to find something wrong with it. (This person was also not an art major) I found that she was very distant towards me even when I tried to give her positive reinforcement on her art and at first I thought I did something wrong. I never quite asked her if I did something wrong but we remained to distant nonetheless. It got to the point where she didn’t want to sit near me and went to the other side of the room. A quite literally watched her face shift every single time somebody complimented me during a critique. Am I weird for thinking that she doesn’t like me? I still think I might have done something wrong.
Edit, I realized from a comment I might have sounded very pretentious about my artistic abilities. ISTG I did not mean to make that in my intention. Being so fr right now I was just displaying observations I saw I genuinely do not think I’m that good 😭.
I’m trying to figure out why you think you’re TA in this situation. Why are you posting this in AITA?
I was wondering if I was just being pretentious (I’m often a worry wart).
NTA not everybody is going to like everybody. Some don’t like people for petty reasons known only to them. Just don’t let the stick up her ass bother you it’s her stick.
Without more info it’s hard to know, but as of right now NTA.
The simplest explanation is that there are some people who:
A) Just won’t like you.
and/or
B) Hate to see other people receive praise.
That’s understandable I get that. To go a little bit more in depth this person often sempt to be more critical the more I liked the piece.(I don’t know if this clears anything up though) Honestly don’t really have more information I just never really got to talk to her 🤔 outside of critiques of course.
Option C: some people just have to pick a person to have a problem with.
NTA. Art is like a box of crayons that are missing the red crayon sometimes you just won’t click with certain colors. Maybe your classmate was just feeling the absence of that red crayon in their life.
NAH. That is the point of critique in studio classes. For you to learn to evaluate art, but also take criticism. Did you not also have to sit before a review panel made up of faculty as well? If art was your major, that should’ve been a component. You think that gal was bad, just wait until you get your first negative review of a show or a piece and you aren’t prepared to handle it. You have to develop a thick skin, which you won’t do by getting milquetoast positive feedback from people who are more concerned with not hurting your feelings than helping you with the skills you need for success. What she did was much harder than saying, “love it. Looks great,” she gave you specific feedback (shouldn’t feedback be specific to have value?) about your work. Your faculty need to be providing feedback as well, and they will definitely be critical and specific.
That’s fair I and I do genuinely love critique in fact I get it a lot and it’s very helpful. What I was trying to say is she will quite literally start getting angry when people have too many positive things to say and she’d start nitpicking as much as possible. Like she would only get happy when I was being critiqued. But I also do get what you’re saying and I believe critique should be specific.
Artists are competitive and tear each other down, so this gal is probably not as bad as what you will face down the line, so learning not to take criticism personally will greatly benefit you. I worked at an art college for years, and all the studio faculty shit on each others’ work behind their backs constantly, and they were friendly colleagues.
ESH – It definitely sounds like she doesn’t like you. Maybe she is jealous of your artistic talent, or maybe she is reacting negatively to some other personality trait such as vanity (you definitely oversold it on how talented and admired your work was). But the fact is, who cares what some classmate says in a one-off personal enrichment gut class that is not even part of your major?
Considering how much this criticism affects you — that it has to be about HER and not about the actual feedback she offered — it is probably a good thing that she is teaching you to deal with the artist’s reality that not everyone will like your work.
Bro you just made me realize they sounded so pretentious I’m so sorry 😭. I genuinely didn’t mean to I was just saying what I was observing. I also agree that her criticism can be good.