Mike,
My first reaction was a laugh of disbelief. Pity you weren't able to reply with a "please explain."
There are no limits beyond which the "public" will not reach. Thick skin and deafness are good attributes for an artist.
Some years ago I was demonstrating portrait painting with another artist (a very talented one) when we received lots of advice and negative comments from a "know it all" type. His venom was more directed at her and after some time, she invited him to demonstrate to her how his techniques were so much better than what she was doing (a delicate watercolour.)
He leaped to the paper, slooshed some paint about, stabbed at the canvas a few times and said that she should be "free" and she should note how much the painting was now improved. Betty took one look at the mess he had created, told him about his inadequacies in some detail, invited him to pay for the cost of the watercolour paper he had wrecked, stripped the paper off the board and screwed it up.
The other onlookers cheered while he beat a hasty retreat. She surprised herself as she is the quietest little thing normally.
Another artist I watched doing charcoal sketches spent about half an hour drawing a young woman who squirmed and wriggled incessantly throughout. When he had reached a point where he couldn't do any more (and had spent more time than he had allowed himself), he gave her the drawing with the comment that she should never again inflict herself on a portrait artist as he had beeen doing this line of work for fifteen years and she was the worst subject he had ever drawn.
I don't only know cranky people!!!
