Being Proactive

by Mistress Gunnvör silfrahárr

Well! I NEVER! That rotten judge!
Knows NOTHING! about what I do! How dare they!
I'll show THEM! I'll never enter an A&S competition again! NYAH!

This would be an example of an "A&S attitude problem". Unfortunately, it's all too typical. An artisan crafted an item, entered it in an arts and sciences competition, but didn't like the way the item was judged, the feedback received, the scores, etc.

Instead of doing something useful about it, the artisan quoted above sat down in the middle of the road, threw up his or her hands, and began to lament loudly that now he or she would eat worms.

Whining is not the answer. Neither is being a quitter. If the artisan had taken a proactive response instead of a passive-aggressive one, they would be much happier in the long run. Worm-eating will not make anyone feel better, and usually doesn't get you what you want. And if you have talent, it is dumb to quit instead of looking for better answers.

One thing to remember for everyone. If an event or a competition or the whole world does not turn to your expectations, it is up to you to do something about it. You can change your expectations. You can change the world. It is up to you.

Here are some ideas for handling this problem better:

(1) Track down the commenting judge and discuss the matter in depth.

If you don't know who this person was, talk to whoever is organizing the A&S at the event and find our who the judges were and speak to each of them. Find out why they came to the conclusion they did.

Many things can happen that lead to less-than-ideal judging results -- you submitted your beautiful piece of work with a research paper instead of brief documentation that was to the point... the judge saw this huge bit of documentation and declined for whatever reason to read it (not enough time, patience, interest, etc). and then based on whatever they knew or thought they knew about the artform made a judgement. Or the person proceeded to give you an execrable critique (a good critique would have said what was not period and how you could do it better, plus given you the person's name and possibly referred you to other experts in the field). Or the judging results aren't really that bad, but you don't fully understand what the judge meant, or something was lost that you would have understood instantly had they spoken with you where you could have heard their tone of voice and seen their body language.

Almost always taking a few moments to find and talk to your judge will give you enough information to feel better. Chances are very good that the issue is just miscommunication - take a few moments for good communication and make a positive contact!

(2) Ask Laurels who practice your art

If you couldn't or didn't want to find the person giving the bad critique, take the time to track down a Laurel or two who are knowledgable in the field. Get their critiques, whether in the context of the display or outside it.

If other artisans in your field give you similar comments and suggestions, maybe you should consider them. If you've come across new research that shows something very different than the group consensus, educate! Write an article for a newsletter, post the info to the web, publish in Tournaments Illuminated.

On the other hand, if the other experts in the field disagree with your judging results, proceed to step 3.

(3) Shrug off the bad critique

Shrug off the bad feelings and go forward. You may get a much better judge next time.

(4) Also exhibit in body of work displays

Try staying with your display so you can talk to the judges and answer any questions - many times this helps a lot, because you get verbal cues to help, and you can ask questions right then. If an artist is with their display and I think they have an authenticity problem, I will ask them about it. Either they will teach me or I will end up teaching them, a win-win situation. As a case in point, I remember Mistress Muriel displaying a pastel portrait at an A&S. I knew pastel was period, the portrait was much like a period oil painting so the overall style was period, but my question was whether pastel was used to do portraiture in this manner. Muriel was able to show me where I had missed the answer to this in her documentation (yes, it is period) and let me tell you that I had just read that documentation, but either overlooked the sentence I needed or didn't understand it the first time I read it. COMMUNICATION IS THE KEY TO EVERYTHING.

Make sure you do talk to the judges. If they don't seem to getting the clue, gently lead them to it.