Writing your own personal artist's statement

While writing the first articles for this weblog, I did some research on how to write an artist's statement. The website that shows up as the first link when you search for 'artist's statement' in google, even before the Wikipedia entry, is a website by a woman called Molly Gordon. I had never heard of her before, but she surely knows how to do promotion, if her website ends up on the number one position on google, even before the Wikipedia entry.

On her website she has a very good, step by step protocol to get to your personal artist's statement: http://www.mollygordon.com/resources/marketingresources/artstatemt/ If you are serious about what you do, take your time and go through all the steps that she describes on her website. You don't need pen and paper though, just type down all your thoughts immediately into a text document, which you can use again later.

If you are the kind of person who doesn't have the time to spend hours and hours digging into yourself, finding out who you really are, then the 10gallon Artist's Statement Generator at http://10gallon.com/statement2000/ is something for you. Just fill in all or any of the fields and the website will create the statement for you. And even if it doesn't describe exactly who you are, it might still be a good start. You could simply start changing the text to make it more yours, without having to think too much about it (yet) yourself.

How to write an artist's statement? (again)

Now that you know WHY you should write an artist's statement, there is still the problem of HOW to write an artist's statement. The best way to solve that problem is to just start doing it. And then, while you are writing, you will realize that you have to think everything over again.

The interesting part of writing an artist's statement, is that you will start thinking about what you are doing. You will start wondering what exactly it is that you are doing. And you will start wondering why you are doing what you are doing. And then, at some point, everything that seems important in your work, suddenly starts changing...

All the things that were always so clear, suddenly don't make sense anymore. Once you have it all written down, all those keywords together in a text document, printed out on a piece of paper, you suddenly realize, that it is something completely different that you really want with your work.

So you start writing your artist's statement again. And you realize that you should first make some new works of art, that will fit to your artist's statement, so that your artist's statement will fit to your work. And you realize that... and... until you realize, that you will never manage to put together an artist's statement...

Why do I need an artist's statement?

An artist's statement is a short introduction of yourself for all those situations where you cannot be there in person to give an introduction. Think of an artist's statement as a representation of yourself for all those situations where you cannot be there yourself.

You could say that your work should speak for itself and that it doesn't need an explaination. But there are many people who like to have a short introduction together with the work. Just think about all those times when you were watching an art work in a gallery, when it wasn't really clear to you what the work was about. And then, after reading the explaination next to the work, you slowly started to understand what the artist wanted to say with it. And after understanding it, you maybe even started to like the work.

An artist's statement can be a great help for other people to better understand your work and to maybe even like your work. The artist's statement tells your story when you are not there yourself to tell it. For example to a visitor on your website. Just remember, the statement should be clear and to the point. This is the first impression that someone will get from you. KEEP IT SHORT! People don't have time to read other people's stories. If they want to know more about you, they will contact you for more information.

Here is a great link with information on why to write an artist's statement: http://www.artbusiness.com/artstate.html

How to write an artist's statement?

In an artist's statement you describe yourself, without explaining in detail all the things that you do. An artist's statement is a short text in which you present yourself to someone who doesn't know you (yet). An artist's statement should be short, clear and to the point. It should be easy to understand for anyone, even for those who don't know anything about art.

An artist's statement is always written in the first person. That means that it sounds as if you yourself are telling about yourself. You can still ask someone else to write the statement for you, but it should be written in your own words, in your own way of speaking and in the first person: 'I like to do art' not 'he or she likes to'.

It might feel strange at first to write a text about yourself in which you use 'I' and 'me' and 'my' all the time. The best way to start, is to imagine yourself explaining your work to someone who is standing next to you. What would you tell to someone who you don't know yet very well and who is interested in your work? How would you describe your artistic work to this person?

Try to write down a few sentences what you would tell to explain your work. For example start with 'My work is inspired by...', 'In my work I try to...'.

Just write down anything that comes to mind and then leave it again for some days.

What exactly is an artist's statement?

Nowadays artists often create works in very different fields. Many artists are not just a 'painter' or a 'sculpturer' or a 'musician' anymore. This can be difficult when you need to put together your biography. But even if all the different kinds of work that you make, seem to have little in common, there is always one important element that connects all of them together: you!

All these works were made by you. Now it is up to you to find out what all these works connects together. What is your 'fingerprint', your 'signature'? What are the themes that are visible in your work. What inspires your work? Which elements keep coming back in your work? Which keywords would you use to describe your work? Don't think of keywords like 'photography', 'digital art' or 'video', but think of keywords like 'nature', 'street', 'people', 'cats', 'old houses', 'foreign countries', 'travel', 'aliens', etc. Anything you can think of that relates to your work.

In an artist's statement you explain who you are, what you do and why you do it, in very simple language, understandable for anyone. In an artist's statement you don't list all the projects that you have done in the past, but you explain what you are doing now, at the moment. Imagine yourself talking to someone who you've never met before, explaining that person who you are and what you do.

My first blog articles will show you step by step how to create your own artist's statement.