processing some thoughts

an overheard conversation made me stop and think - the comment which stayed with me was about a common reaction when looking at creative work; the way we often compare the thing we are viewing  to something we have created or seen ( e.g. it reminds me of a piece i was working on recently which ..........etc)  - it caught my attention because i know i do this, but also because i started to wonder why this is such common behaviour?

it can sound rather like "been there, done that", especially if there has been no appreciation of, or constructive comment made, on the work in question - but my thinking is that it is a way of making sense of the work, a way of relating it to my own experience in order to be clearer about what it is about the work that i am responding to

when faced with something new or unfamiliar there are lots of potential reactions, e.g.

• ignore it as something threatening, irrelevant, unpleasant
• criticize it as dangerous, unnecessary, ugly, obtrusive etc
• assess it according to some personal or established criteria
• welcome it unreservedly

as an inquisitive (? nosy) person i'd like to think that my reaction mostly falls mostly into the third option - if i remember correctly from basic psychology years ago, the more negative responses are not unusual when people feel insecure

the original comment was made by someone who clearly felt aggrieved and insulted by this common response - i would be interested to know if many creatives also feel this way ...... maybe i will ask around a bit

in the meantime i hope i will remember to make positive and constructive comments about work, ask the artist about the aspects which catch my attention and, if tempted to relate it to something within my own experience, be clear about why i need to do that