November 2006
The artist, whether obscure or famous, young or mature, is always vulnerable to the wounds inflicted by the criticism of others. These wounds might have a positive aspect, as the director Elia Kazan has said, because talent is nothing but the tissue that heals our wounds. And the deeper these wounds, the thicker the tissue that covers them.
However, the wounds of criticism can turn out to be negative and sterile if, beyond the psychological pain they cause, they lead to armoring, denials, and defenses. The artist then risks fighting the wrong battles, if he starts to expend more effort on imposing his work than on dedicating himself to its creation, or if he conforms to suggestions that, although they hurt him, are alien to him. Defense thus becomes the guide of creation. And the artist shifts the field of development of his work, which should be that of the struggle with himself and his art, to that of the struggle with others.
The solution of armoring against wounds, even if feasible, not only is not a real solution but creates new problems and obstacles for the artist. Armoring is never selective, but usually extends to all facets of the personality, making the individual impervious to everything from the outside in, and even worse, from the inside out.
Perhaps the only substantive way out would be to treat criticism as yet another manifestation of human communication and contact. And to allow the artist to be wounded, but only by those who, beyond artistic criticism, are logically supposed to hurt him with their behavior. That is, by those with whom he shares either respect or love, and even more so when he shares both these feelings with them. The necessary consequence of offering (and receiving) respect and love is the rejection of all armoring and the exposure of ourselves to all kinds of wounds. But these are then interactive wounds, since the one who wounds is wounded, and fertile wounds, since this respect and this love already constitute an integral structural element of the artistic work in the form of the positive influences that the artist has indirectly received.
Plato Rivellis