Where Do You Stand With Your Art Colleague? Meaning
How to write an artist argument
I like to think of the artist statement as the wedding ceremony toast of the art world. If you wing it, all of a sudden you're on the spot in front of a crowd of expectant faces, trying to put into words a relationship (betwixt you lot and your art) that you've always felt intuitively. We've all seen those toasts. They don't go well.
Merely if yous put time and energy into crafting your message beforehand, y'all'll actually add to that crowd'south understanding of the significance of this event (your art) and assistance them experience all the feels more securely.
I've been wrestling with my own artist statements for equally long as I've been making fine art. And I must confess, it's never a task I look upon with glee. This, despite the fact that I write about art for a living. But reading other people'southward statements has taught me a lot about what works and what doesn't, and how to reverse-engineer a killer toast: a clear, concise and compelling creative person statement.
— Artist and writer Sarah Hotchkiss
First things first: What is an artist statement?
In the interest of clarity, permit's define "creative person argument," since I've already needlessly complicated things by introducing a wedding ceremony metaphor into the mix.
An artist statement is a not-too-long series of sentences that describe what yous make and why yous go far. It's a stand-in for yous, the creative person, talking to someone near your piece of work in a way that adds to their experience of viewing that work.
Here are a few things an artist statement is non: a manifesto, an art history lecture, a story almost discovering fine art, short fiction, self-psychoanalysis, a string of adjectives, a g theory of everything you've always fabricated, or a list of your career accomplishments.
Yous'll be chosen upon to submit creative person statements when you apply for residencies, grants, and sometimes, exhibition opportunities. I wrote my get-go substantial one when I applied to MFA programs. And here'due south the secret: even though they can exist difficult to write, they're immensely useful. It truly helps me empathize my own practice to sit every few months and interpret this nonverbal solitary thing I spend countless hours on into words for a specific audience.
If you lot're reading this guide and it'southward not the dark earlier an of import application is due, you're already in adept shape. Artist statements take fourth dimension, but they don't take to exist torture. If you lot tin can get into the habit of stepping back, evaluating your work, and writing a few sentences nearly it, y'all won't take to start from scratch when y'all're down to the wire.
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The brainstorming phase
All that said, sitting down and writing clear, concise, and compelling sentences about your art is daunting. Then don't start with sentences. Ease your way into it with a writing exercise that feels exciting, or generative, or natural to you. A few suggestions:
Gather your fine art in ane digital or physical infinite and actually look at it. It's possible yous've been working on such a micro level you haven't taken a macro view in a while. What commonalities and differences do you see? Recall holistically about a specific trunk of fine art.
Write out a list of adjectives that describe your piece of work. Apply both visual and tonal descriptors. Be specific and avoid art jargon. If your art follows in the footsteps of minimalism, could you lot describe it as serenity? Or rhythmic? Is your work funny, raunchy, messy?
Record yourself describing your art to a friend, family unit member, or swain artist. Chances are y'all're making statements almost your work all the fourth dimension. Accept a studio visit coming up? Record the conversation (with the other person's permission), transcribe the audio, and mine it for pertinent details.
Call back about the emotions and reactions yous desire your audience to come abroad with. An artist'due south intent may have picayune bearing on an audience's estimation, just an creative person argument is one of the few places you get to nudge that audience towards your desired outcome. Exercise they acquire something from your art or make new connections between disparate subjects? Are y'all trying to make people feel agitated, joyful, incensed?
Write a casual alphabetic character to your best friend almost what you've been upward to in the studio. "Dear Laurie, today I spent v hours papier-mâché-ing a cardboard version of a hamster toy. It came out looking like a first-grader's craft project, but that's what I was going for. I think it'll make yous laugh."
Jeopardy your exercise. What are the questions you hope to respond in your work?
Artist argument basics
Suddenly, you have a bunch of words describing your art. Now you become to pick the best ones to fulfill the very basic elements of an creative person statement: what, why, and (possibly) how.
What. Brand sure to state what medium yous work in (paintings, sculptures, installation, non-narrative video, durational performance, etc.). It's amazing how many statements don't include that basic fact.
Why. Endeavour not to overthink this one. Look back at your brainstorms and your casual conversations. You brand this work because you're excited most it. What, exactly, are yous excited almost? Exist confident: Your art shouldn't "promise" or "try" to practise something to the viewer, it should merely exercise information technology. Hither is where you lot tin can likewise bring upward, without going as well far into the art historical weeds, your influences and inspirations.
How. If you lot have a truly unique procedure that's important to understand—or one that images can't accurately convey—briefly draw how you lot brand your work. (Please note: Collage is non a unique process and there'southward no inventive mode to depict information technology as such, even if you lot utilize the word "juxtapose.")
Beyond fulfilling these bones "what, why, and how" requirements, an artist statement tin exist relayed in any tone and sentence structure feels all-time to you lot. (I encourage the utilize of full sentences, as fragments audio flighty.)
That's it! Really!
Ruby flags, bad practices, and other traps to avert
In my many years of reading artist statements (and gallery printing releases), I've adult an ever-growing list of banned words and phrases. While these ways of writing may audio fancy, they're actually empty. And using them makes a piece of writing look lazy and nonspecific. Artist statements are especially susceptible to these traps because we write what nosotros think people want to hear instead of what'due south actually truthful to our work.
Your artist statement should feel like information technology's written past you, the artist—not by a critical theorist or an art history professor or a dealer or a curator. The people reading it are looking for an enriched feel of your work and proof that yous've put some thought into what you're making. They want to hear your phonation—non that of some formulaic art-jargon robot.
And then, some things to avoid:
Extreme binaries. Is your work really "examining the strangeness of both interior and exterior spaces?" Is it "both casual and formal?" "Light and dark?" (Similarly, ask yourself, is your work truly "blurring the boundaries betwixt text and subtext?")
Lazy clichés. Only you make your artwork—so shouldn't the words you use to depict it exist unique and specific every bit well? If you find yourself using certain words equally crutches, or as highfalutin stand-ins for hard-to-articulate ideas, I highly recommend creating your own "banned words" list and keeping it somewhere handy. And then, get back to your brainstorm notes and pick out words or phrases that feel concise, fresh, and truly related to your work.
"International Art English." Chances are you've seen it, read it, and felt unsettled by information technology in press releases, wall labels, and other people's creative person statements. This muddled and imprecise linguistic communication seeks to elevate what it describes through nonspecific word choices, invented "spaces" (the space of the real, the space of the dialectical), and complicated grammatical structures. For an in-depth analysis of this phenomenon, propagated most intensely by the art world announcement email service eastward-flux, please see this fantastic article in Triple Canopy.
False range. Does your practice "range from drawing to sculpture to video to artist books" or do you but brand "drawings, sculptures, videos, and artist books?" False range is a rampant and completely accepted course of writing these days, just the discerning reader volition notice information technology and judge you for it. A false range creates a continuum between one matter and another when there is no actual continuum. Yes, your palette can "range from blues to reds" (color is a spectrum). But your influences cannot include "everything from Wanda Sykes' stand-upwardly to Tamagotchi pets to tinsel" (in that location is no middle point between Tamagotchi and tinsel).
Theory. My extremely wise friend and colleague Edible bean Gilsdorf, longtime art earth advice-giver, says this best: "Art theory only has a place in an artist argument if it has a direct begetting on your day-to-day studio practice. Otherwise, skip it."
You have a draft, now what?
You've brainstormed, you've answered the what and the why. Y'all've avoided all of the above. But chances are you lot yet have a lot of extra baggage in that argument, or it'due south not striking quite the right tone, or yous feel similar information technology could be more fun to read. At present you get to edit, revise, tweak, trim, and whip that argument into shape.
Read your statement out loud. Trust me, this works. Every bit yous read, ask yourself: Is it accurate? Is information technology descriptive? Is it compelling? Is information technology me? Could this statement just as easily be applied to someone else's work? Make sure it'south specific to what you make—and provides a sense of who yous are to the reader.
Look at your art while you reread. Call back, your artist argument should exist current. You don't need to sum up a wide-ranging practice from the get-go of your baby creative person days to the nowadays moment. It should reflect whatever images you're providing alongside information technology. Put another way, your artist argument shouldn't be and so aspirational that yous talk about making room-sized installations while your images are a few small watercolors.
Piece of work it into submission. Read aloud, edit. Read aloud, edit. Accept a break (a day, a week), come back to it, read it aloud and ask the above questions again. Recollect that this doesn't have to represent your work forever and always. Like the U.S. Constitution, an artist argument is a living document. Y'all can update information technology every bit often as you like.
Shorter is meliorate. Existence economic with words proves yous know what you're doing, that you're confident in your work, and that you don't have to couch it in elaborate language to legitimize it. Your statement should be somewhere between 100 and 300 words in length. (This is an case of truthful range.)
Consider your audience
The tone that you strike in an creative person statement for a local group prove should probably be different from an artist argument you lot write for a $100,000 grant opportunity. Every time you start reworking your statement, remember to inquire yourself who or what this item piece of text is for. Write a basic statement that tin serve as the foundation for all futurity artist statements, but make sure yous revisit and reevaluate for each application, exhibition, and request.
In guild to truly know how your artist statement volition be received, and if it's doing the work you want it to do, you need to have other people read it. I recommend finding a diverse audience of art friends and non-fine art friends, family, and mentors. This argument should exist as legible as possible. Tell them to be brutally honest with you and mind to what they say.
Have a writer friend read your statement for typos. Accept someone else read information technology for typos. Triple-check for typos!
And most importantly, give the people you ask for feedback enough time to read your argument and reply to you. Practise not do this: "Hiiiii, this is due in an hour can you look it over for me pls thx adieu!"
In summary…
As those who exercise say: no hurting, no gain. Statements are difficult to write, but they're salubrious. They tin help someone gain a deeper understanding of your art, feel more connected to that art and, ultimately, value it. They can brand or break an application. And they can help you put words to your practice, giving yous the language to understand just what you're doing and why it's astonishing.
Most the Author
Sarah Hotchkiss is an artist and writer in San Francisco. Since 2015, she's been the visual arts editor for KQED, the Bay Area'south NPR and PBS chapter, covering the local visual arts and film scene in online articles. Before wading into the earnest waters of public media, she worked every bit the communications director for the venerable San Francisco arts nonprofit Southern Exposure. And earlier that she wrote condition reports in a warehouse that stored Indiana Jones-level amounts of art. She holds an Yard.F.A. from California College of the Arts and a B.A. from Chocolate-brown Academy. In addition to her own studio practice, she watches a lot of scientific discipline fiction, which she reviews in a semi-regular publication chosen Sci-Fi Sundays.
Source: https://thecreativeindependent.com/guides/how-to-write-an-artist-statement/