It's always a huge red flag for me when somebody's reticent or reluctant or a little slow in providing thoughtful references that are a testament to them as a person and their professional accomplishments.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
A thoughtful piece of criticism by somebody who understands the context of what you are doing is a tremendous gift and honor to read, even if they don't completely embrace your work.
People are very sincere in their praise, and you can't take it lightly.
You are often asked to explain your work, as if the reader isn't able to work it out. And people always try and label you by your work.
It's a disease of critics that once they've labeled someone, it's very hard to change their perspective. It's laziness.
Over the years, I've become barraged by comments from people, such as, 'Beam me up, Scotty!' and I became defensive. I felt they were derisive and engendered an attitude. I am grateful for the success, but didn't want to be mocked.
Every time I'd get a critique or some redirection, I'd always just take it very personally. Now I have no problem with it.
I strive to use references that may still make some kind of sense once our age has passed into history. That robs my writing of a certain connectedness to my time, but potentially might allow it to make sense to people who are not in this time.
Over the years, I think, people - actors, writers, whatever - lose their frame of reference. Their frame of reference is based on somebody else who did this or did that. Performances. So it just becomes a reflection of what already works. Like a warm-up. And that's an invitation to be inauthentic.
The way I make art - the way a lot of people make art - is as an extension of language and communication, where references are incredibly important.
I always try to get people a different outlook. When you do that, people take ownership of the information. They don't ever have to reference me because, I'd like to believe as an educator, I'm empowering them to have those thoughts themselves.