[dark_crystal]

Originally Posted by SoNotHer

What I find more amazing is the amount of people who proclaim they write poetry and don't actually read or listen to other people's poetry. In fact, a student recently told me that he not only didn't read/listen to other poetry but that he didn't need to. And here I thought we were all teachers and students, poets and readers, artists and audiences, changing roles in an interconnected universe.

this shocks me too. in art school, one of the worst adjectives you could hear at critique was "derivative." How can you avoid this if you have no idea what anyone else is doing?

another thing that shocks me is the perception of "self-expression" as being the purpose of art. Like, the "artist" feels that if they got their feelings out and onto the page/canvas/etc, the piece is successful- without considering whether there is anything for the viewer/reader to take away from their experience of it.

both of these are really good reasons to get schooling in your art, which does elevate you to elite status