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When the teacher is ready, the student will appear.
Beth, your post raises enough issues to "fund" this thread for a long time.
One of the most significant comments that you make is also one that I think can be put to best practical use. You indicated that even when you want to offer comments or critiques, even when the urge is nearly overwhelming, you know that you might have to spend an hour on it, and you just don't happen to have that time available. Now on the other end of that "exchange" is a person who signs on and doesn't see any critiques. What is that person to think? How very unfortunate it would be if he or she were to simply assume that everyone was stunned into silence by the sheer temerity of the artist to post such a dreadful thing. And while both of those actors are creating these "personal realities" through their thinking, the original image is still sitting there, just as it is, waiting patiently, filing its nails, oblivious to all those storylines being strung out.
In the same light, whether or not someone takes your advice is irrelevant to its value. (Otherwise, most world religions would collapse overnight, since most people don't take their "advice," either!) More important than whether someone alters his or her painting or drawing to accord with your comments and perceptions is whether someone (it could be the artist whose work you're considering, or it could be any of the 58 or 93 or 229 people we know only as "Views") found some useful nugget that they could take away and add to their own toolbox or cache of wisdom to be called upon in its own time.
The student has an obligation as well to train in being thoughtful and discriminating, to very consciously avoid being one of those "blind following the blind." An unhelpful critique is itself instructive -- if one takes the time to articulate why the advice, however well-intentioned, isn't apt in a particular piece. Getting it right the first time is, in a sense, of far less instructive value than getting it "wrong," discerning how you went astray, and fixing it. I guess my intent here is to say that the teacher-student relationship imposes obligations on both parties, and you -- as the teacher -- don't need to worry quite so much about whether your contribution is gold rather than bronze or, forbid, pyrite. You're offering guidance, not CPR, and you don't bear the burden of saving (or pleasing) everyone.
One dynamic that is evident on this and other forums is that those who give critiques tend to get them. Gratitude for being part of this community is revealed as much by what one gives back as by what one has received. And let's face it, it's just human nature to want to find that hour for someone who has found one or two for you or for others. Maybe it's a kind of quid pro quo, but maybe it's just because, as you've stated, time is limited and you want it to be well spent. To the sigh-ing resignation that there just isn't time to do critiques, or to teach, it's just a slight turn to a different perspective, that writing critiques and teaching expands the time you have. It makes your life larger.
The twist on the old phrase that I used for the heading here -- "When the teacher is ready, the student will appear" -- came to me on the drive to work this morning, and it is the crux of my long-winded comments. You've done your homework. You have a much-respected portfolio. You know more about this stuff than the majority of members and nonmembers who read this Forum every day. If you can refrain from telling yourself, "I'm not good enough yet to offer any useful advice," or "I don't have time for this," or "Nobody wants to hear what I have to say," then you might be surprised to discover that your students have been waiting for you, and they're ready to get to work. You won't always know who those students are until after you begin the instruction. Perhaps years after.
I didn't have "time" to write this post, but my day already feels larger for having done so. That's the way it works.
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