Again, I feel resonated a lot with this piece of reading. The idea of how external voices affect people performing not only applies to art. Human beings are social animals. To really not care about anyone else’s opinion requires a strong mentality with great confidence, which most people do not possess. Like myself, I can’t help to not care about what others view my works. To really brainwash me into not looking at them is like burying my head in sand. Therefore, what I’m working on is accepting the fact that not everyone may like what I have.
Going back to the topic of art, I feel like the key part for an artist is to be self-consistent. If the artist’s gole is primarily to make money, then this artist ought to make art that follows the public’s opinion and it’s important for his work to be understood, accepted, and approved. On the other hand, if the artist does art for self-entertainment purposes, then public’s opinion on his/her work no longer matters. Also, such artist should be prepared to not have his/her work understood, accepted, or approved by the public. It wouldn’t make sense if an artist keeps wants popularity while ignoring what the public likes; nor would it make sense if an artist with very unique/personal works keeps trying to win public’s approval on his/her work. But still, I believe most artists are somewhat in between these two extreme categories. Therefore, for them, I think what they need to work on is also accepting the fact that not everyone may like what they have (spend more time with the people who do understand their work).