The Artist and The Enemy

My mom says artists' need critics. She remembers the man who said "that's a waste of a fiddle" as she played on stage. I remember when she was learning that fiddle, it screeched like cats in spring. But now she plays and sings and gets paid for it. It doesn't matter how good you get, you never forget the harsh part.
Grenon says his critics aren't sensitive. They are prejudice, they don't see what a guy like him is doing making art like that. John Singer Sargeant said every time he painted a portrait he lost a friend. Well join the club. When you use someone as a subject you are going to suffer the consequences. We don't want to see ourselves, that's why we look at art, we'd rather see that. That part of you coming out with all it's nasty little imperfections, that part of you is what we want to see, not that part of us, that part of us is a secret. If you uncover that, well, there it is.
Every time I write I put a filter on it, because I don't need all that stuff getting out, messing with my life, like coffee grounds in an otherwise perfect cup of joe. Who wants to deal with that?
Grenon does, Sargeant did too. I don't buy it for a second, never wants to paint another portrait-ha! And I never want to write another story. It's part of the process. Insensitive critics, hacks like me writing about other people's art, afraid to put my own neck on the line. The critic knows he is only a critic, and will remain so until he becomes the criticized- and don't we hate that.