If nothing else, art must be interesting. My mother used to tell me "it's hard to be distracted if you're not already focused," and what I took from that was that every distraction is not bad. Art often functions as a diversion that causes someone to take a moment to look at or be made aware of something beyond themselves. Creating art, or a healthy distraction, is the domain of the artist, and exposing that art to the masses requires the courage to handle a response or lack of response. It took me some time to appreciate criticism for what it truly is - a response to a distraction. When you distract someone, be ready for a retort...lol.

We as artists are very used to having so much autonomy as creators, and in many ways we hide a piece of our souls in the art that we create. It makes us the gods or rulers of our little worlds of influence. We make the rules, set the boundaries and regulate the evolution of our work with practice and experimentation. But ultimately, the beauty of sharing with a collective and the risk involved in sharing one's work is the conversations that come as a result of making a statement. They may often be affirming and that is comforting, but sometimes a healthy dislike can truly serve the progression of new artistic thoughts.

Be open, because art is a dance of sorts in that one creates, one observes and the result may stimulate more or perhaps even less art. When creating art, I keep in mind the "form-follows-function" concept; however, when I view art the function of the art becomes reliant on the form being observed. Happy creating and lets get distracted!!!

Bryan Davis