I trust my friends to tear my work to pieces...

When I ask them for feedback they wont placate me, there'll be no false platitudes or white lies, there will just be the work. The work with all its faults and glories, the work with a underlying flaw that requires whole sections be rebuilt and reworked, the work with its need for minor polish, the work they dont like personally but understand as a facet of craft and concept.

Sure we may disagree over the severity of some of those faults, one of us may believe the works core feeling is better communicated in one font than another, we might go back and forth on a rationale, debating its clarity in the end work. But we talk, and thats the key part, we focus on the work, we dismantle it, so we can better understand it, and if needs be rebuild it differently. We are open to the discussion and willing to participate in it even when its uncomfortable.

I feel very fortunate to have such friends, and have endeavoured to be the same kind of friend to others. But there's a catch i've found, not everyone actually wants you to give them feedback when they ask for it. They want the platitudes, the false glory and glossed over faults. They arent able to ask hard questions of their own work so of course they (and often the work) fall down under such questioning.

Now don't get me wrong, we all need a little hype now and then, the world knocks us down far too often for us not to have friends who will help pick us back up, im not saying you cant have moments where all you want is someone to tell you you're doing great. However in the long term, if you want to avoid being knocked so far down so regularly, understanding why and how you're falling is a necessary, if uncomfortable, step towards that.

The importance of being exposed to and participating in this critique is something I've repeated often in this space. Studying graphic design the very first assignment we had in university was to arrive on that day one with a piece of work (the brief for which was simply an A3 artwork focused on a circle). Initially we thought it was just a standard "lets see who read the email and what programs you can all use" type assignment. But we were in fact split in to groups of 10, arranged in a circle and told to present our dots to each other, and then critique the person opposite.

Now i am a socially awkward person at the best of times, so having this as my very first university experience (outside of excessive drinking the weekend prior) was f-ing terrifying to put it bluntly. But we were all on level footing, and there wasn't exactly an escape option, so round the circle we went. Some people dug their heels in despite everyone agreeing their idea hadnt worked, some people made excuses for printing theirs on A4 instead of A3, some rolled with the punches and got on with it, one girl did say with all seriousness "you just dont get it". But as the exercise went on I feel the majority of us realised the value in this and the necessity of it. If you cant stand an idea up before a bunch of your fellow first years how will pitch that artwork to your tutors, let alone an actual client.

We went through this "exposure therapy" as it were, because the ability to depersonalise the work, to look at it with hard and soft eyes, to ask questions of it, is vital to graphic design. But truthfully I feel its vital to any long term art practice as a whole, what's more I think it is a core tenant of a healthy art movement or broader space.

Look I get it, no one wants to hear that their home is falling down, but ignoring or arguing with the structural engineer wont change the fact that it needs remedial work, and maybe if youd been willing to ask for their opinion earlier the work wouldn't have been so extensive or difficult.

So go find artists in the space you respect who share some medium or conceptual link with your work, who can give you an informed opinion. Im not saying you have to take their word as gospel, in fact the questions they ask of your work may simply rebolster your confidence in the decisions you've made, but you wont know unless someone asks. On that note practice asking these questions of your work ,and of others, the more you pick things apart, the more you understand how they go together.

In short, find good friends, with sharp eyes, thoughtful tongues, and open ears.