Ms. Taylor,
Hopefully no one will judge you, they will judge your trees' artistic and technical merit. The two are vastly different things.
Many people cannot seem to separate the two, and therefore hard feelings can follow. Or some folks are pretty thin-skinned about any critique of their trees, and hard feelings can ensue.
I can assure you that when you creat trees that move beyond the rules, your trees will come up for criticism, either positive or negative. That is a good thing, it's how we learn and grow. For example, check out my thread on my collected Colorado blue spruce. I styled that tree as a semi-cascade, that was the plan I had for it, and I made it happen. I didn't realize the cascading branch would look so thin, however.
Of course I posted the tree as soon as I was finished, and got some interesting critique. The one thing I heard more than anything was to get rid of the cascading branch, tilt the tree up, and make it tighter. Hans Van Meer, a wonderful internet friend, made what I think is the best virtual representation I have ever seen, because it is possible, and in fact just a simple next step in the evolution of this tree. I think he sent it to me in chat and I saved it to my laptop. Unfortunately, I don't have that computer with me right now. Your dad was the first with similar good advice, just consider his, tipped up some, with the crown closer to the trunk, and the back branch gone. I will post Hans' submission as soon as I can.
My point is that if we are open, we can learn from all these things. Here's my plan with the tree: repotting in spring with good root work and changing the angle, then the following year, I will restyle in the new direction. At that point the tree should be close to display-ready.
Don't worry, there will always be those who will make suggestions because they love the art and think you have a good thing going, or good possibilities. They will find you soon enough, I think.
Edit: Here are the two photos again: