The Croatian phrase larpurlartizam comes from the French phrase l'art pour l'art – Art for art's sake. The phrase is credited to Théophile Gautier (1811–1872). The reason this journal entry was named with that phrase is rather silly, and can be contributed to the fact that I have some time to spare because I'm working on a side project on my computer. I was recently involved in a discussion on a forum I visit with, one could say, alarming frequency. The discussion was about art and how to criticise art – or to be more specific can you say that one direction of art is utter crap (pardon my French) and that another is pure genius? While I'm no art critic, nor am I a brilliant artist (in fact I don't consider myself to be one) but somehow I feel that criticism from a variety of people, no matter how educated they are, can lead to good things. Or at least it should. Otherwise I would never be able to say anything about any piece of art anywhere in the world except I like this because, and I dislike this because.

Now while I do think that a lot of works art experts define as modern art is (to me) a bunch of utter crap (again pardon my French) compared to the so called works of the old masters, I don’t mind having them on display in some gallery or museum. I just won’t pay the ticket and go see them, because I have better ways to spend my money than seeing something I don’t like. But this is not a discussion about what art is and what isn’t, although a lot of things these days deserve to be questioned and perhaps redefined and settled in another category. But that’s another story. I am typing this to give people the chance to see how I look at art and how I express myself about it; or to put it in DA context how do I react when I see someone’s deviation and what do I write in the comment section.

During my almost two years on DA (June the 22nd will mark my second anniversary on DA) I’ve submitted a lot of works. Some were horrible, some were ok and some were great. My opinion sometimes varied from the opinion of my watchers, fellow artist and critics but I appreciated every little comment they gave me. Whether it was just a: wow this is stunning/amassing, or a half a page dissection of the work I read each and every one and responded to them. I think responding to people who took the time to see or read your work is very important. I know some DA members have tons of comments and it’s impossible to believe that they have the time to answer each any every one, but it’s a nice gesture and I think people will appreciate you more for that. The same thing goes for s.

When I comment someone’s deviations I try to avoid the shock and awe comments that consist of single words and a few emotions. I try, but sometimes I am shocked and awed that I simply can’t say anything but that. But every time I look at someone’s deviation if I’m going to give a comment on it I try to be constructive. I try to tell the author what do I like about it, what I don’t like, what I think should be fixed and give some advice if I can. The easiest things to comment for me are photographs. I’m a amateur photographer with an Olympus FE-5500 compact and through (sometimes horrific) trial and error stage I learned a thing or two about photography – enough that commenting comes easy for me. That and my sense of aesthetics . I refer from technical comments, mainly because I’m not familiar with everything, but about concept, originality, perception, theme, general and artistic impression and how well was the entire thing done – in that I do have an opinion and I try to make myself as clear and constructive as possible. I won’t say that something is horrible or awful, I’ll point to a part I didn’t like and say something like: Oh I think you should change the angle, or do this instead of that and so on. The greatest satisfaction I get is when I see that the artist’s next photo or photos are better than the previous ones.

When it comes to drawings, whether they are digital or traditional I’m in bigger trouble. I can’t draw to save my life, and this is no exaggeration. I can draw primitive shapes and forms of objects, but to make them look decent let alone beautiful… For that I would need magic, and that I don't have. But I try to stick to the same principle as I do with comments about photography. Concept, originality, perception, theme, general and artistic impression and how well the whole work is done, although I’m a little softer on the painters than I am on photographers. I kind of expect precision and a bit of perfection with photographs (edited in PS or not), but with painters, especially with beginners, I’m a bit more understanding. Don’t suppose that I think that photography is an easy art, it’s not. Sometimes to achieve a great photo is harder than to paint something very good. I’ve seen photographers climb walls and mountains, or simply twist themselves in to some pretty uncomfortable positions just to get a shot of something. I did that when I was taking photos of flowers; and let’s not forget that people look at you like you’re a madman. I’ve never seen those looks given to painters.

The arts and craft section is another one where I have the shock and awe problem. And I’m a girl, so naturally I like jewellery of every shape, size and kind. In here mostly I’ll comment on a job well done and ask about a few technical details because I’m very interested to know how these things are done. As stated above, don’t expect a lot of intelligent comments from me there, I think the s are enough to show you that I like what you do. Or they should be most of the times. Photomanipulations belong to a genre that I like very much and I know how hard it is to make a good one. I’ve never been able to make a good one, only a mediocre one – but that’s not the point. I’ve seen a lot of photomanipulations – DA is full of them. In some you couldn’t distinguish the manipulation from a photo, and some were dreadful – you could see that they were done with little knowledge, sense of aesthetics, composition and all that jazz. But to the people who really make it, and make you think where to put that work of art – now that’s something. I enjoy giving comments in this section, because I have a feeling that I’m on familiar ground and can give some solid and constructive advice when I’m not under the shock and awe phenomena.

To conclude this very long text (it would be longer if I wrote it in Croatian ) I’m just going to say a few things. Art is what you make of it, and whatever you make try to get better and better each passing day. Maybe you won’t become Da Vinci, or Rembrandt or Picasso or Annie Leibovitz or *insert a random famous name* but the important thing is that what you do makes you happy. And if you are satisfied with yourself you won’t have any problem excepting advice and critique – as long as they are not there simply to be rude, but to teach you something. Mind you sometimes an advice can be given in a not so polite way (a House like way I would say), but try to find something insightful there before you pronounce the whole thing a flame and delete it. And for those of you who are giving comments remember that old saying: do to others the things you want to be done to yourself. Constructive criticism, encouragement, or simply a pat on the back and a good job means the world to people. Reviews and critiques make every artist happy; and happy people don’t do horrible things, they do beautiful things.

Until next time have fun, take care of yourself and be as productive and supportive as you can.

Nessa Saelind




Member and moderator of



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I'm keeping my eye on:





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Great and talented artists I watch and admire