Artist Statement

[mediumcool]

The point is you don't. Therefore your credibility = zero.

I have wasted enough time responding to your erroneous commentary and your continual efforts to degenerate a useful thread into an opinionated waste of space.  Feel free to respond and have the last word (looking at your post history thats clearly your 'thing'). But you have already been moved to 'ignore'.

Looks, sounds and smells like a hissy fit. And to belittle somebody who has English as a second language is pathetic; a virtue of coming to English later in life is to respect it as a powerful means of expression when used with care, and Isaac appears, on the basis of his posts, to do so.

Isaac also seems a courteous person by dint of his posts; I’d much rather interact with him. 

[Isaac]

And to belittle somebody who has English as a second language is pathetic; a virtue of coming to English later in life is to respect it as a powerful means of expression when used with care, and Isaac appears, on the basis of his posts, to do so.

I see that my "Since coming to the  U.S.A." comment caused some confusion - I came from the UK as a native English speaker, and had the two countries separated by a common language experience :-)

[Rob C]

I see that my "Since coming to the  U.S.A." comment caused some confusion - I came from the UK as a native English speaker, and had the two countries separated by a common language experience :-)

Felicidades - it's now gone viral and separated continents.

Rob C

[Isaac]

The point is you don't. Therefore your credibility = zero.

I have wasted enough time responding to your erroneous commentary and your continual efforts to degenerate a useful thread into an opinionated waste of space.  Feel free to respond and have the last word (looking at your post history thats clearly your 'thing'). But you have already been moved to 'ignore'.

Good luck!

[Colorado David]

Back to the original topic.  Does anyone have or know of examples of good, well-written, easily understood artist statements they could post or link?  Thanks to those who have.

[Isaac]

Back to the original topic.  Does anyone have or know of examples of good, well-written, easily understood artist statements ...

What goal do you want the artist statement to achieve for you? We'll have a better chance of providing examples that are good (fit to purpose) if we know the goal.

[Tom Frerichs]

Agree with Jeremy. If you must have one, use http://www.artybollocks.com/ ....

I LOVE it. It makes as much sense as engineering requirement docs without the formality.

Tom Frerichs

[Walt Roycraft]

Back to the original topic.  Does anyone have or know of examples of good, well-written, easily understood artist statements they could post or link?  Thanks to those who have.

The E Book I referenced and linked to in a previous post has examples of AS. I don't think any photogs but they were well written.

Here is one example http://www.sharonpitts.com/

[Isaac]

Does anyone have or know of examples of good, well-written, easily understood artist statements they could post or link?

The book Art Journey America Landscapes: 89 Painters' Perspectives shows one page of text and one painting for each of the painters. (Some pages can be seen with Amazon LookInside.) The text is a short bio followed by 3 or 4 question and answer paragraphs, here are a few of the questions --

• "What inspired this painting?"
• "How would you describe your painting style?"
• "How do you plan your compositions?"
• "Is your painting inspired by spirituality? How is that seen in your art?"
• "Do any historical movements, periods or artists inspire your painting?"
• "What does landscape painting teach us about life and art?"

Those questions seem to touch on many of the points covered in artist statements, and the Q&A format avoids burdening the reader/prospect with the anxiety of having to think-up questions about the work.


On a side note, only one of the painters gave the let the paintings speak for themselves response, and even they answered the "What inspired this painting?" question.

[Colorado David]

What goal do you want the artist statement to achieve for you? We'll have a better chance of providing examples that are good (fit to purpose) if we know the goal.

Sorry about being late to respond.  I've been busy.  I want to be able to differentiate my various work.  Since I shoot photojournalism, documentary and fine art, I need to suggest that I can turn off and on the post processing of fine art.  In addition I want to diffuse the remarks that some people make about manipulating photos in post by offering a reason that it is done.  As I asked in the first post, am I navigating a mine field by offering an artist's statement?  Perhaps what I really need is an About Me statement for the fine art and leave it at that. Thanks.

[Colorado David]

But I don't do weddings.

[john beardsworth]

Sorry about being late to respond.  I've been busy.  I want to be able to differentiate my various work.  Since I shoot photojournalism, documentary and fine art, I need to suggest that I can turn off and on the post processing of fine art.  In addition I want to diffuse the remarks that some people make about manipulating photos in post by offering a reason that it is done.  As I asked in the first post, am I navigating a mine field by offering an artist's statement?  Perhaps what I really need is an About Me statement for the fine art and leave it at that. Thanks.

I don't think anyone knows, but I feel you're doing the right thing by subjecting your statement to an ordeal by fire! Too often people seem to write these things without apparently sensing how ludicrous they are making themselves appear.

Surely an About Me can co-exist with a short artist's statement? I enjoyed looking at Chuck's pictures earlier at http://chuckkimmerle.com/ and he has an artist's statement that says something interesting without getting trapped in any of the bunkers.

John

[Rob C]

I don't think anyone knows, but I feel you're doing the right thing by subjecting your statement to an ordeal by fire! Too often people seem to write these things without apparently sensing how ludicrous they are making themselves appear.

Surely an About Me can co-exist with a short artist's statement? I enjoyed looking at Chuck's pictures earlier at http://chuckkimmerle.com/ and he has an artist's statement that says something interesting without getting trapped in any of the bunkers.

John

Yes, but one would excuse Chuck anything: his pictures are so eloquent, so well seen that he could write a politcal manifesto and it would pass as 'statement' without comment.

That's the difference between photographers: some just have it with or without words where others are all words, good or bad.

Rob C

[MikeDitz]

Just today I was at the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles. There were artist statements along with the photographs. For the most part I find artist statements to be overwrought about me pages sprinkled with "art-speak" words, and the phoney ones generated by artybollocks are disturbingly close to the real ones. Maybe the artists do have a sense of humor and are just going along withe the tradition and we are all taking them too seriously. Or maybe they don't.
All due respect to the folks who posted theirs (I don't have an AS but I do have a mission statement that uses a lot of the corporate -speak buzzwords) but the one that was about 8 paragraphs long is not going to be read by anyone, even close relatives will bail out after 3 or 4 graphs...

[mediumcool]

Artist [or artist’s, or artists’] statements have one ultimate purpose: revenue.

[Rob C]

Artist [or artist’s, or artists’] statements have one ultimate purpose: revenue.

Are you sure? Are you absolutely convinced it isn't a face-saver, a 'blame the mission, not the man' sort of thing?

Rob C

[Isaac]

Artist [or artist’s, or artists’] statements have one ultimate purpose: revenue.

It ain't nece - ain't nece, Ain't nece - ain't nece, Ain't necessarily ... so !

As "a self-evaluation of your work as it stands in the here and now" an artist statement can be a private assessment by someone who photographs for pleasure not profit.

[Rob C]

It ain't nece - ain't nece, Ain't nece - ain't nece, Ain't necessarily ... so !

As "a self-evaluation of your work as it stands in the here and now" an artist statement can be a private assessment by someone who photographs for pleasure not profit.

And there I was, thinking an AS is a statement of intent and not a judgement on what has gone before! Live and learn.

Rob C

[Isaac]

And there I was, thinking an AS is a statement of intent and not a judgement on what has gone before!

I imagine that people understand quite different things by the phrase artist statement - and some of them (not thinking of anyone in particular) will be happy to spend their time bickering until they can declare their understanding to be the one true definition. I can't be arsed ;-)

The following seems clear enough to be useful --

"When you present your work it is most likely you will be asked to accompany it with some sort of contextualizing statement. ... Sometimes this statement is referred to as a Statement of Intention. That is extremely problematic terminology as it implies that it is necessary to make the case that what you have done is exactly what you intended to do. Seldom does this occur, and when and if it does it can be more a liability than a success. ... a Statement of Intention is forward looking while an Artist Statement is a self-evaluation of your work as it stands in the here and now."

page 51 STUDYING PHOTOGRAPHY: A Survival Guide

[Isaac]

I want to be able to differentiate my various work.

You could treat them as completely separate activities and create separate sets of marketing material, targeting different audiences.