Why Is My Art Better When I Dont Try?

How to write an artist statement

I similar to think of the creative person argument as the wedding toast of the art earth. If you wing information technology, suddenly y'all're on the spot in front of a crowd of expectant faces, trying to put into words a human relationship (between you and your fine art) that you lot've always felt intuitively. We've all seen those toasts. They don't get well.

Only if you put time and energy into crafting your message beforehand, you'll really add to that crowd's understanding of the significance of this outcome (your art) and help them experience all the feels more securely.

I've been wrestling with my own artist statements for equally long as I've been making art. And I must confess, information technology'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's 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 artist statement.

— Artist and author Sarah Hotchkiss

First things first: What is an artist argument?

In the interest of clarity, allow's define "creative person statement," since I've already needlessly complicated things by introducing a wedding metaphor into the mix.

An artist statement is a not-too-long series of sentences that draw what you make and why y'all get in. Information technology's a stand up-in for you, the creative person, talking to someone about your work in a fashion that adds to their experience of viewing that work.

Here are a few things an artist statement is non: a manifesto, an fine art history lecture, a story about discovering art, short fiction, self-psychoanalysis, a cord of adjectives, a grand theory of everything you've always made, or a list of your career accomplishments.

You'll exist called upon to submit artist statements when you apply for residencies, grants, and sometimes, exhibition opportunities. I wrote my first substantial ane when I applied to MFA programs. And hither'due south the undercover: fifty-fifty though they can be hard to write, they're immensely useful. It truly helps me empathise my ain practice to sit down every few months and translate this nonverbal solitary thing I spend countless hours on into words for a specific audience.

If you're reading this guide and information technology'due south not the nighttime before an important awarding is due, you're already in good shape. Artist statements take time, but they don't take to be torture. If y'all can get into the habit of stepping dorsum, evaluating your work, and writing a few sentences about information technology, y'all won't have to offset from scratch when you lot're down to the wire.

The brainstorming phase

All that said, sitting down and writing clear, concise, and compelling sentences nigh your art is daunting. So don't start with sentences. Ease your style into it with a writing exercise that feels heady, or generative, or natural to yous. A few suggestions:

Gather your art in one digital or concrete space and really look at it. It's possible you've been working on such a micro level you oasis't taken a macro view in a while. What commonalities and differences do you lot run into? Think holistically about a specific torso of art.

Write out a listing of adjectives that describe your work. Use both visual and tonal descriptors. Be specific and avoid fine art jargon. If your art follows in the footsteps of minimalism, could y'all depict it as quiet? Or rhythmic? Is your piece of work funny, raunchy, messy?

Record yourself describing your fine art to a friend, family fellow member, or fellow creative person. Chances are yous're making statements about your work all the fourth dimension. Have a studio visit coming up? Tape the chat (with the other person's permission), transcribe the audio, and mine it for pertinent details.

Think nigh the emotions and reactions you lot want your audience to come abroad with. An artist'southward intent may take little bearing on an audience's interpretation, only an artist statement is ane of the few places you get to nudge that audience towards your desired result. Do they learn something from your fine art or make new connections betwixt disparate subjects? Are you trying to make people feel agitated, joyful, incensed?

Write a casual letter to your best friend about what you've been upwards to in the studio. "Dear Laurie, today I spent five hours papier-mâché-ing a cardboard version of a hamster toy. It came out looking like a beginning-grader's craft project, but that'due south what I was going for. I call up it'll make you laugh."

Jeopardy your exercise. What are the questions y'all hope to answer in your work?

Artist statement basics

Suddenly, you take a bunch of words describing your art. Now you lot get to pick the best ones to fulfill the very basic elements of an artist argument: what, why, and (possibly) how.

What. Make sure to country what medium you work in (paintings, sculptures, installation, non-narrative video, durational performance, etc.). It's amazing how many statements don't include that bones fact.

Why. Try not to overthink this one. Look back at your brainstorms and your casual conversations. You lot brand this work because you're excited well-nigh it. What, exactly, are yous excited well-nigh? Be confident: Your fine art shouldn't "hope" or "try" to practice something to the viewer, information technology should just do it. Here is where you tin also bring up, without going also far into the art historical weeds, your influences and inspirations.

How. If yous have a truly unique process that's important to understand—or i that images can't accurately convey—briefly describe how yous make your work. (Delight note: Collage is not a unique process and there'due south no inventive way to describe information technology as such, fifty-fifty if you utilise the word "juxtapose.")

Across fulfilling these basic "what, why, and how" requirements, an artist argument tin exist relayed in whatever tone and sentence structure feels best to y'all. (I encourage the use of full sentences, as fragments audio flighty.)

That's it! Really!

Red flags, bad practices, and other traps to avoid

In my many years of reading creative person statements (and gallery printing releases), I've developed an e'er-growing list of banned words and phrases. While these ways of writing may sound fancy, they're actually empty. And using them makes a piece of writing await lazy and nonspecific. Artist statements are particularly susceptible to these traps because we write what we think people want to hear instead of what's actually true to our piece of work.

Your artist statement should feel like it's written by you, the artist—not by a critical theorist or an art history professor or a dealer or a curator. The people reading information technology are looking for an enriched feel of your piece of work and proof that you've put some thought into what you're making. They want to hear your phonation—non that of some formulaic art-jargon robot.

So, some things to avoid:

Extreme binaries. Is your work actually "examining the strangeness of both interior and exterior spaces?" Is it "both casual and formal?" "Calorie-free and night?" (Similarly, ask yourself, is your work truly "blurring the boundaries between text and subtext?")

Lazy clichés. Only you brand your artwork—so shouldn't the words you use to describe it be unique and specific as well? If you find yourself using certain words every bit crutches, or as highfalutin stand-ins for hard-to-clear ideas, I highly recommend creating your ain "banned words" list and keeping information technology somewhere handy. Then, go back to your brainstorm notes and choice out words or phrases that feel curtailed, fresh, and truly related to your work.

"International Art English." Chances are you've seen it, read it, and felt unsettled by it in press releases, wall labels, and other people's artist statements. This muddled and imprecise language seeks to elevate what it describes through nonspecific word choices, invented "spaces" (the space of the real, the infinite of the dialectical), and complicated grammatical structures. For an in-depth assay of this phenomenon, propagated nearly intensely by the art globe proclamation e-mail service east-flux, please see this fantastic commodity in Triple Canopy.

Simulated range. Does your exercise "range from drawing to sculpture to video to artist books" or do y'all simply brand "drawings, sculptures, videos, and artist books?" False range is a rampant and completely accepted form of writing these days, but the discerning reader will notice it and judge you for it. A simulated range creates a continuum between one thing and another when at that place 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-up to Tamagotchi pets to tinsel" (at that place is no middle point between Tamagotchi and tinsel).

Theory. My extremely wise friend and colleague Bean Gilsdorf, longtime art world advice-giver, says this best: "Art theory just has a place in an creative person statement if information technology has a straight begetting on your 24-hour interval-to-mean solar day studio practice. Otherwise, skip information technology."

You take a typhoon, now what?

You lot've brainstormed, y'all've answered the what and the why. You lot've avoided all of the above. But chances are you still have a lot of extra baggage in that statement, or it's not hit quite the right tone, or you lot feel like it could be more fun to read. Now y'all go to edit, revise, tweak, trim, and whip that statement into shape.

Read your statement out loud. Trust me, this works. Every bit yous read, ask yourself: Is it accurate? Is it descriptive? Is it compelling? Is it me? Could this statement only as hands exist applied to someone else's piece of work? Make sure it's specific to what you brand—and provides a sense of who you are to the reader.

Await at your art while you reread. Think, your artist argument should be current. You don't demand to sum up a wide-ranging practice from the first of your baby creative person days to the present moment. Information technology should reverberate whatever images you're providing alongside it. Put some other manner, your creative person statement shouldn't be so aspirational that you talk nigh making room-sized installations while your images are a few minor watercolors.

Work information technology into submission. Read aloud, edit. Read aloud, edit. Take a break (a twenty-four hour period, a week), come up dorsum to it, read it aloud and ask the higher up questions again. Remember that this doesn't have to represent your work forever and e'er. Like the U.S. Constitution, an artist argument is a living document. You tin can update it equally ofttimes as y'all like.

Shorter is better. Being economic with words proves you know what yous're doing, that you're confident in your piece of work, and that yous don't have to couch it in elaborate linguistic communication to legitimize it. Your statement should be somewhere between 100 and 300 words in length. (This is an instance of true range.)

Consider your audience

The tone that you strike in an artist statement for a local group bear witness should probably exist different from an artist argument y'all write for a $100,000 grant opportunity. Every fourth dimension you starting time reworking your statement, call back to ask yourself who or what this particular piece of text is for. Write a basic statement that tin serve as the foundation for all time to come artist statements, simply make sure you revisit and reevaluate for each application, exhibition, and asking.

In order to truly know how your artist argument will be received, and if it'due south doing the work you want it to practise, you need to have other people read it. I recommend finding a diverse audition of art friends and non-art friends, family unit, and mentors. This statement should be equally legible as possible. Tell them to be brutally honest with y'all and listen to what they say.

Accept a writer friend read your statement for typos. Have someone else read information technology for typos. Triple-check for typos!

And most chiefly, give the people you ask for feedback enough fourth dimension to read your argument and reply to you. Practice not do this: "Hiiiii, this is due in an hour tin you wait it over for me pls thx bye!"

In summary…

As those who practise say: no pain, no proceeds. Statements are difficult to write, but they're skilful for you. They can assistance someone gain a deeper agreement of your art, feel more continued to that fine art and, ultimately, value it. They can make or break an application. And they can help you put words to your exercise, giving you the language to understand just what you're doing and why it's amazing.

About the Writer

Sarah Hotchkiss is an artist and writer in San Francisco. Since 2015, she's been the visual arts editor for KQED, the Bay Area's NPR and PBS affiliate, covering the local visual arts and picture scene in online articles. Earlier wading into the earnest waters of public media, she worked as the communications director for the venerable San Francisco arts nonprofit Southern Exposure. And before that she wrote condition reports in a warehouse that stored Indiana Jones-level amounts of art. She holds an Thou.F.A. from California College of the Arts and a B.A. from Brown University. In addition to her own studio practise, she watches a lot of science fiction, which she reviews in a semi-regular publication chosen Sci-Fi Sundays.

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Source: https://thecreativeindependent.com/guides/how-to-write-an-artist-statement/

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