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In that case, I am reluctant to complain to the person making the coffee (which I did for a bunch of years – make coffee, not complain), who’s hard at work, no doubt wanting to get me my coffee relatively quickly. At the same time I don’t think the consistent wait is something that I need to complain to the management about. So I made a snarky comment about it here. Is that passive aggressive? Yeah, probably. But I am using my real name (not saying that makes it better, but it makes it different) and I feel like making a specific reference to my feeling about the service is different than just waiting for someone to post about Four Barrel and so that I can say that it sucks. Or having “_____ sucks!” ready to go and then just filling in whatever the post is referencing.

My point was this: While you are comfortable posting the offhand comment that you have been “waiting and waiting” for your drink (a comment that might rile a service industry worker), I doubt that you would complain to the person who is working hard making your latte that you have been “waiting and waiting” right at them. I was trying to point out that people writing on the internet–even ones who are not writing wholly anonymously–may still feel a space between themselves and their comments that allows them to get comfortable writing things that they might not say aloud in the company of other people. From what you’ve written, I think that we are agreeing with one another here.

think_for_me – To your first point, you don’t have to validate your criticism at all, we agree on that. I actually thought your comment was funny this time. It’s totally fine to weigh in however you like, we rarely censor comments, which is important to me. I just want to challenge you to add something more to the dialogue than popping up just to put something down. It seems like some people here seem to subscribe to “if you don’t have anything mean to say don’t say anything at all”, which is fine, just a bit of a drag.

To your second point, my comment comes in a stream of the same old kind of thing from you (and it’s not just you, I recognize) that I think doesn’t really add much to the conversation. I know I don’t need to take this so seriously, and I don’t really, but I think often times a chance to have an interesting discussion (which I now think we’re having) is missed because people would rather just shit on everything. Think of a room where a few of us are standing in a lighted area offering things we think are cool or interesting for people to look at and most of the people react by hiding in the dark and making dick jokes and booing. It’s just not as fun. Plus, it’s easy to be mean when you’re not exposing yourself. Though I also know that this site can sometimes encourage that kind of reaction through its tone.

Look, I do this on breaks at work, the little spare time I have in an evening, weekend, whatever, because I enjoy sharing stuff and hopefully sparking a dialogue. I don’t need you to praise me or anyone else here, I would welcome a critique of my photography or artwork or whatever I put up here. I don’t need to see your work to want to listen to your opinion, but I do need to see that you’ve put some thought in it and not just being contrary just because you can.

But you’re gonna do what you want and that’s cool with me, sometimes I just feel the need to respond. And I appreciate this dialogue.

As an exercise, ask yourself if you would retort to a compliment on this artwork the same way? If someone said they thought it was great, would you ask them to show some of their work and try to note the merits of constructive-positivism? I believe that opinions are simply opinions.

Was that constructive criticism of Four Barrel’s work, or just an anonymous internet dump?

Ariel, I do agree that the internet is often a venue for people to post commentary about art that they would possibly choose to not repeat to an artist’s face. However, I think that it is reasonable to assume that the goofy subject matter of this particular art, and the unsubtle mashing together of throwaway pop culture bits is naturally going to cause people who don’t care for it to respond to it with an “ick, how stupid” reaction.

I can’t imagine that the artist would expect anything different. But I could be wrong.

Now back to work on my zombie Barbie dioramas. They are dripping with fingernail polish “blood”, and I’m ready to throw on the creepy green glitter.

Also, negative criticism is one thing. Constructive criticism is another. I appreciate critique, even from anonymous internet commenters, but some people are just here to dump on everything, which is tiring.

For the inconsequential argument, I don’t buy that, for the amount that you comment you’re obviously here to have a conversation, which is what’s happening right now. Internet comments are not a big deal, obviously, but why shouldn’t I address them?

I’ll hire someone else to do the visual.

Beside, there is nothing wrong with negative criticism. If rattles the ego of the artist, they may want to investigate a different field. If it doesn’t, or they simply don’t care what people say (good or bad), then that’s even better.

So, people don’t care for the artwork of a local cafe and make a comment on a local blog. If ever a glaring example of the inconsequential, this is a top contender.

I only hope that after completing this painting, the artists stepped back and in disbelief uttered, “Did I do thaaaaat!?”