ARTIST STATEMENT
What is an artist's statement? It's a general statement about your body of work, a series, or a specific project. It can include your philosophies on what art is or why you created your body of work.
What is the point of writing one? You'll be able to clarify to others and to yourself what your artwork is about. It will provide a description of your work so that others will be able to understand it from your point of view.
average length: 1-3 paragraphs
What to include:
- Your overall vision
- What you expect your audience to learn from your artwork
- Sources of inspiration and background history
- Artists that may have influenced you
- How a certain technique is important to the creation of your work
- Your philosophy of art making
How do I begin?
Start out with a plan of how you want your statement to read. Is it emotional, academic, humorous, political, theoretical, analytic? What are you trying to say about your work? Refer to yourself in the first person. Be honest about your work. Try to capture your own speaking voice. Avoid repetition and fluffy language. Be precise.
Brainstorm ideas in your sketchbook.
Create an outline and then start to write sentences.
What is the point of writing one? You'll be able to clarify to others and to yourself what your artwork is about. It will provide a description of your work so that others will be able to understand it from your point of view.
average length: 1-3 paragraphs
What to include:
- Your overall vision
- What you expect your audience to learn from your artwork
- Sources of inspiration and background history
- Artists that may have influenced you
- How a certain technique is important to the creation of your work
- Your philosophy of art making
How do I begin?
Start out with a plan of how you want your statement to read. Is it emotional, academic, humorous, political, theoretical, analytic? What are you trying to say about your work? Refer to yourself in the first person. Be honest about your work. Try to capture your own speaking voice. Avoid repetition and fluffy language. Be precise.
Brainstorm ideas in your sketchbook.
Create an outline and then start to write sentences.
What GOOD artist statements do
- keep it short
- grab the reader’s interest with the first sentence
- introduce the author’s personality and enthusiasm
- give a hint about the why of the artwork
- use the first person (I, me, mine — this is not a strict rule, but it does seem to help the author write a more straightforward, readable statement)
What GOOD artist statements don’t do
- summarize the resume found elsewhere on the website
- give a physical description of artwork photographed elsewhere on the website
- sound generic
- use “art speak”
Some questions to think about when writing your statement
- What keeps you coming back to the studio, day after day?
- What’s the best way someone has responded to your artwork (comment in a guest book, at an exhibit, etc.)
- What questions are you asked most frequently about your work?
- What’s your artist story? (as opposed to your biography and CV)
- Who is your art for?
Alison Sigethy, glass artist: “Getting outside is good for the soul. Through my artwork, I try to bring the outside in. While I make no attempt to portray actual plants or animals, I do want my creations to look like they could have lived or grown somewhere. Living with beautiful objects that pay tribute to the natural world reminds us to slow down and helps us reconnect with nature.”
Nancy McIntyre, silk screen artist: “I like it when a place has been around long enough that there is a kind of tension between the way it was originally designed to look and the way it looks now, as well as a tension between the way it looks to whoever is caring for it and the way it looks to me. Trouble is, the kinds of places I find most appealing keep getting closed or torn down.
What do I want to say with my art?
Celebrate the human, the marks people make on the world. Treasure the local, the small-scale, the eccentric, the ordinary: whatever is made out of caring. Respect what people have built for themselves. Find the beauty in some battered old porch or cluttered, human-scale storefront, while it still stands.”
Andy Yoder, sculptor: “Many people take great comfort in the bathroom towels being the same color as the soap, toilet paper, and tiles. It means there is a connection between them, and an environment of order. Home is a place not only of comfort, but of control. This sense of order, in whatever form it takes, acts as a shield against the unpredictability and lurking chaos of the outside world.
My work is an examination of the different forms this shield takes, and the thinking that lies behind it. I use domestic objects as the common denominators of our personal environment. Altering them is a way of questioning the attitudes, fears and unwritten rules which have formed that environment and our behavior within it.”
Nancy McIntyre, silk screen artist: “I like it when a place has been around long enough that there is a kind of tension between the way it was originally designed to look and the way it looks now, as well as a tension between the way it looks to whoever is caring for it and the way it looks to me. Trouble is, the kinds of places I find most appealing keep getting closed or torn down.
What do I want to say with my art?
Celebrate the human, the marks people make on the world. Treasure the local, the small-scale, the eccentric, the ordinary: whatever is made out of caring. Respect what people have built for themselves. Find the beauty in some battered old porch or cluttered, human-scale storefront, while it still stands.”
Andy Yoder, sculptor: “Many people take great comfort in the bathroom towels being the same color as the soap, toilet paper, and tiles. It means there is a connection between them, and an environment of order. Home is a place not only of comfort, but of control. This sense of order, in whatever form it takes, acts as a shield against the unpredictability and lurking chaos of the outside world.
My work is an examination of the different forms this shield takes, and the thinking that lies behind it. I use domestic objects as the common denominators of our personal environment. Altering them is a way of questioning the attitudes, fears and unwritten rules which have formed that environment and our behavior within it.”