Norman Rockwell was artist-in-residence at the Otis art school in Los Angeles in 1949.
In those days, a lot of the art teachers at Otis criticized Rockwell. One remarked, as he passed down the hallway, "The only way Rockwell can paint is from a photo." Rockwell happened to be working in a classroom and overheard the comment.
Later that day, Rockwell, a slender and modest man, approached the critic as a dachshund might approach a pit bull.
"You have an interesting face," he said. "May I paint your portrait? Why don't you come by tomorrow around noon?"
The critic agreed, and the next day Rockwell proceeded to paint a perfect likeness from observation, all the while regaling the man with amusing stories. Then he gave him the painting.
The painting went up in the man's office and it blew everyone away. Now Rockwell's toughest critic became his biggest champion. No one could say a single word against Rockwell without an argument from this guy.
Source: David Starrett told me this story, which he witnessed.
Would that all criticism could be met with such style and grace.
This reminds me of a personal story.
In junior high school we were having the gymnastics unit in gym class, and I was standing in front of the pegboard by myself. A classmate that I didn't especially like was just sitting nearby on the folded-up bleachers gainst the wall, staring and sulking.
The most basic pegboard skill was to be able to go side to side, and after that you could try going up and down. The biggest challenge was to go "around the world." I was having trouble gripping the pegs at all, let alone moving them, and I muttered to myself, "how are you supposed to do this?" The unlikable classmate heard me and made this unsolicited, sarcastic remark: "It's called strength!"
I turned to face him for one furious moment... I was so angry! Facing the board again, I jumped up, grabbed both pegs, and went across, up, over the top, and back down in one go, navigating through all sixteen holes- "around the world." He was quiet then, and I felt pretty good about myself!