cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/6081311
This is the background art for the cover. Before I share the full cover, I wanted to give a peak at what artist Sean Bodley has done for the background.
You can find more of his work at https://seanbodley.com/ and support him at patreon.com/seanbodley .
It's actually not complete: it's the background. The full image will debut in a day or so, I just wanted to build anticipation.
But that's beside the point. The point is that saying you don't like a piece of art is non-constructive criticism. I think it's discouraging and unkind to artists to offer criticism that isn't in some way constructive.
Since when is it not okay to criticize art?
Actual art criticism is a bit more nuanced and based on a fundamental grounding of understanding with the medium.
If you walk up to a Jackson Pollock painting and say 'That's bad', literally no one interested in painting will call your statement art criticism.
But... Jackson Pollock's 'art' is bad
Why do you think that? Have you ever seen one in person, up close?
Come on, who hasn't been to the MOMA? Honestly I was kinda joking, I'm not a fan of abstract splatter-type arts, to me that kind of thing seems incredibly self centered of the artist and ofter low effort or wasted effort without conveying a universal beauty of any kind and instead forcing viewers to have to accept that the artist must have seen something that they don't... It's not friendly or inviting as an experience for anyone that isn't in the "know", you know?
I have to agree that a lot of 'modern' art is pretentious and self-indulgent, for this one artist I put aside my distaste after seeing one up close. It's not just paint splatters, there's work in the texture. They're more of kind of 3d art than anything.
That said, thinks like that joker who taped a banana to a gallery wall just piss me of to no end.
I think criticism is great: when it's constructive.
That's when you say what you'd like to make the art better. To issue constructive criticism, all you have to do is say WHAT you don't like, so that the artist can learn and -- assuming they want to make art you like better next time -- incorporate that feedback. That's what constructive criticism means.