Critics and Artists

I had an incident the other day (and by incident, I mean that I was the only one who was uncomfortable) where I was in a conversation about plans for entertainment in an upcoming venue. When I shared a few ideas, one of the people in the conversation cut me off with her reaction, saying “NO” to one of the bands I wanted to book for this concept. I immediately felt the need to add more detail to sell the concept but I couldn’t get a word in. She kept cutting me off with the word “No.” The third person in the conversation looked uncomfortable and I dropped the subject.

I carried the misunderstood, embarrassed reaction with me for days, attempting to follow up only once to clarify things. It didn’t help. The whole time, I knew that one opinion doesn’t change my plans or ideas, but I still hated that I had to deal with someone cutting me off. I didn’t react with anger. At least I had that.

As a child, when I was creating something I wanted to show my mother the progress, and she always said “show me when you’re done,” implying that she trusted me to create something amazing and didn’t need to approve of the process. When I studied theater and music, I kept my process maybe a little too secretly, and then had to adjust to the other extreme as I started collaborating with larger, more diverse groups of people, both in theater and the corporate world.

So what happened? How did I walk into this awkward situation where I let a strong, maybe uncompromising opinion sucker punch me? It is one of the worst things for any artist to deal with, and maybe even more so when you haven’t even had a chance to create. These were just seeds for a larger concept, not the final, unwavering thing served up for people to either enjoy or not enjoy.

There’s an old saying that goes “You can either be an artist or you can be a critic. You can’t be both.” That’s an important distinction. There is one spotlight, one person who owns the idea. The critic is in the audience. The job of the audience is to like or dislike, to stay or leave, to react one way or the other. The hope is for them to like what you do, but the reality is that you just want them to feel something. That’s all! Consider the alternative: If someone doesn’t react, doesn’t change, remains unaffected, where did they go? Are there opinions…about anything? Is it possible that the thing that gets them pumped has absolutely no common ground with the space you’re creating in? That’s okay.

What we’re really talking about in this context is something that is completely separate from the actual creative process. I’m reminded of times that people – who are not artists – tell me something isn’t going to work, and then eventually are invited to an opportunity to change their minds. Even if they didn’t, the idea evolved past the conversation and still led to full creation and realization.

Think of all of the artists who were told they couldn’t do something. Think of the time that Prince was booed when he opened for the Rolling Stones. Think of all of the die hard fans who thought that Heath Ledger was going to be a terrible Joker. They didn’t even think Michael Keaton would be a good Batman! The list goes on. Elvis Presley, Fred Astaire, Harrison Ford, Stephen Spielberg, J.K. Rowling, and even the Beatles were all told in one way or another that they should probably consider a different career.

So consider resistance, rejection, and reaction your allies, but not your friends. They shouldn’t provide you comfort or safety, they are there to shape you, train you, presenting something for you to work for or against. You are, after all, creating in a new and undiscovered space, and that kind of courage doesn’t come at a cheap price.

So go ahead, critics. Tell us we can’t do whatever it is we have our hearts set on doing. You will, after all, have to say it from the audience.