Making it personal is probably the best and the scariest part of being an artist. If things go well it feels amazing and if you meet criticism, it goes straight to your heart. And that hurts.
Some protect themselves by shutting themselves off, some hide behind sarcasm, arrogance or ignorance. Some, however, invest the effort and energy to learn to deal with it in a productive manner and by weighing the feedback they receive.
They contextualise, extract factual information and consider the state of the person who chose to say something. It enables them to do two things: 1) listen in and learn something useful or 2) chose to put it aside and leave it at that. Next time make it a choice which way you want to deal with it.
Photography by Hybrid
