Blog Assignment #1: Artistic Statement

Artist Nita Leland gives the following advice about creating an artist's statement:                                  "The time you spend in developing a worthwhile statement is invaluable in helping you define your art for yourself. You may not have given this much thought before. Do some brainstorming or journaling on these questions, as though you were interviewing yourself:

• Why do you like to make art?
• What subjects do you prefer? Why?
• What processes and techniques do you use? Why?
• How is your work different from others?
• What do you see in your artwork?
• What do other people say they see?
• What are your goals and aspirations as an artist?
• Who or what inspires you?

Enlist the aid of a trusted friend and do some brainstorming. Don't analyze, just put it down and keep adding to the lists. Once you have a good start, start comparing one thought to another and decide which one grabs you. Throw the other one out. Keep comparing and eliminating until you have three or four main ideas that express the essence of your artistic purpose. Your statement should be short, clear, understandable, not over-stated, and not too mystical or spiritual. Everything in your statement should be relevant to your art."

Another blogger, Deanna, gives this step-by-step advice:

"Keep it (fairly) short
Write enough so that you can get your ideas across, but keep it to one page or less. Nobody wants to read a multi-paged artist’s statement. That’s what manifestos are for. Conversely, you might think your one-sentence artist’s statement (“I paint landscapes that are pretty”) is funny and ironic, but you might also come across as a gi-normous smart-ass.

Keep it simple
Avoid academic or flowery language. Even if you’re in grad school, your viewers will most likely include some non-artists and non-academics, so you don’t want to alienate them with sentences like, “I find this work menacing because of the way the subaqueous qualities of the figurative-narrative line-space matrix threatens to penetrate the essentially transitional quality.”*

Where to start
Think about a painting, photograph, or exhibit that you’ve seen that you loved, hated, or didn’t understand. What did you want to know about it? Did you wonder what materials the artist used? Why did she paint clowns? Why were the clowns so scary? Was the artist traumatized by a clown? How did she decide to combine photographs and painting? What is her process? Etc…

Then think about a time when someone was viewing your work and asking you questions. What did they want to know? What were they most curious about?

When I wrote my very first artist’s statement, I sat down and just imagined that I was talking to a non-artist friend about my work.
It's also really helpful to collect artist's statements when you go to shows. Or surf the internet and read the statements on artists' websites. You'll see examples of both good and bad statements. Be inspired by the good ones and know that you can do much better than the bad ones.

Start with the “Why?”
Why did you choose your particular subject matter or imagery? You can mention influences (artistic or otherwise), inspirations, and past experiences that led you to your subject. Some artists often refer to the work of other artists that inspired them. Others might be influenced by media or popular culture. Still others might have been traumatized by clowns… It doesn’t really matter how you came to your subject matter, but the viewer will be interested in knowing why you chose it.

Then talk about the “How?”
Most viewers will want to know something about your materials or your process, especially if the materials or processes are unusual. It’s not necessary to write a step-by-step guide to the watercolor process, or list every chemical that you used to process your photographs. You might just mention that you use watercolors and that you were drawn to them for their unpredictable nature and their transparency. Or you could briefly describe the process used to create cyanotypes and what made you love it. And if there’s an unusual technique or material, mention that. And seriously, what is that brown thing?

Act like you know what you’re doing
Avoid phrases like, “I want to…” or, “I’m trying to…” or, “My intention is…” Just say what you’re doing: “I expose the gritty underbelly of urban life…” or, “These paintings explore the wonders of nature and the beauty of our world…” Don't be wishy-washy about it.

Not so much “me,” “my,” and “I”It’s hard to do, but try to avoid using the words “me, my, and I,” repeatedly. It’s annoying to read a whole page of sentences that start with 'I.'"

Write and post an artistic statement of your own, between 2-3 paragraphs in length. Below is a sample writer's statement from Dr. Thea Iberall:

"Writing a poem is like trying to tell a story in as short a space as possible using as many dimensions as possible. It has the essence of a moment: the feelings, characters, and situation all there without any unnecessary words. It is told with sound, texture, images, metaphor, structure, and rhythm. I memorize my poems so that I hear every nuance of each dimension. When it all is working together, then it is complete. Fiction doesn't have to be so terse."

"My extended pieces blur the line between prose poems and storytelling. I love researching and thinking, studying a question in many different lights. Audiences respond to these stories because they learn and they feel. Someone said I take a huge subject and bring it down to one word. I love watching the audience's eyes as they connect with my stories."

"Writing plays is another whole world. I love taking everything I have ever noticed about human relationships and constructing stories that make audiences cry and laugh at the same time."