Following an eventful crit....

Yay i figured out finally how to write another one of these!! :)
well...just finished the fine art  pathway...that went ridiculously quickly. On the whole i quite enjoyed it, i would like to do fine art, although i don't think it will end up that way. I could be wrong. Today's crit was very interessting. I have to be honest, i was more than dreading it. The FT (not financial times ;)) crit went well but it was scary in a...new way. I've never been the first to volunteer for public speaking with people i barely know. But of course today i do know people a LOT better...and besides, the crit was entirely different.
     I knew already that the style of crits depends largely on the style of the tutor handling it. I've been reading 'Seven Days In The Art World' by Sarah Thornton, which is a ruddy FANTASTIC book, and gave me a good insight into the workings of...well, of the art world. I particularly enjoyed reading about the crits at CalArts, MA department to be specific, which are 'handled' by an artist....Asher, I think? Can't quite remember, not going to get up to find book... But i guess this isn't about his crit, it's about mine. So you'll have to read it yourself. ;)
      I think the tutors (Richard and... :/ sorry, other guy) handled it brilliantly. We didn't just talk banally about our own stuff, like a gcse presentation, rather, we used the work as a starting point to have an interpretative, intellectual discussion on such subjects as 'What is sculpture?', and 'why is a fashion show not fine art?' (I'd say it's 'cos fine art is a mirror held up to society, it watches it before it creates...whereas a fashion show takes a much more active role, often driving society, consumerism and commercialism.) Overall, it was great! I only wish my work was discussed...Asher's crit went on until 12am and still only 3 people had been critted. I wish we had that kind of time; it was really fun! :)
      I still learned a lot though, such as the idea that by focusing on detail, you lose the point  of why you're working, you don't see the bigger picture, if you gaze too intently at the minute features of an image. Which explains why we've been encouraged to loosen up and paint like 3 year olds in this class. (Another nice lesson: 3 year olds paint naively, they see without language and without social biases that we see without even thinking. hence, maybe it would be good to try and emulate them.) I really liked this, as i;ve been continually wondering why i'm 'not allowed' to draw beautiful detai. I still miss that, but i guess art has changed. There's no need for that now...we have cameras.