Ye olde artiste statement.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger      1 comments      link this post     


My friend is having some difficulty with her artist statement.

I hate artist statements. Are there accountant statements? Doctor statements? Shouldn't we have an explanation for what the reasoning behind the charges of the average doctor's visit is? Why do artists have to give statements?

It sounds like something from Law and Order. "You need to give me your statement now."

I suggested a fairly simple statement for her to use: “I like dogs. I also like clay. Everything else is natural.”

Short and sweet. She came up with a pretty good one, though, without my help.

But artist statements. Ugh.

I have an "artist statement" but I prefer to call it a mission statement because I, like the Blues Brothers, am definitely on something.

Once, back in one of the earlier versions of this site, I had this to say about that:

We're all taught in art school to have an artist statement, or a mission statement laying out in words what it is our work was to accomplish, where our inspiration came from, yada yada yada. I'd go to the senior shows and read some of the statements with a bit of horror, realizing that I wasn't nearly as lofty in my goals or methods. It's like an artist piling dirt on the floor and saying in his mission statement that he wanted to bring attention to the plight of Vietnamese boat people. All I saw was a pile of dirt, and I wondered who'd get stuck cleaning it up. My mission statement is straightforward (I hope) because my work is what it is.

Sometimes I use green in my paintings because I have lots of green paint to use up. Sometimes it's to symbolize life. Sometimes I spilled paint or dropped a brush on the board. Sometimes I think, "Hey. Green. Neat." Not terribly romantic, and fairly disappointing for the customer who really could care less about the image but is more interested in buying into the Oprahfication Art Gobbledy Gook myth that allows a towel rack to be nailed to a board and sold for $20,000 in some gallery.

I don't think if you lack a super-fab artspeak statement that you're going to end up the Art World's Corey Feldman. You just won't be allowed to wear a beret.

I also included a handy list of words to avoid using in an artist statement because they carried a high risk of making your reader vomit:

• self-taught (Learned your art on your own, but had to be potty trained. Yahoo.)
  
• heartfelt (Good to know you're not whoring yourself to make money only.)
  
• spirit (Oh, please.)
  
• essence (Also works great on a decorative candle label.)
  
• dialogue (Hey. Try the word "talk.")
  
• capture (What is this, The Fugitive meets artist effort?)
  
• primitive (Unless you've whipped up a few Venus of Willendorf's, lay off the claim.)
  
• yearning (Brings to mind a constipated person on the toilet.)
  
• evocative (Half of the country can't pronounce the word. They think it's associated with pornography.)
  
• "I strive" (I think we can all see that you're at least "striving.")
  
• catalyst (Brings to mind things like "Dr. Frankenstein" and "frog dissection.")
  
• intended vision (Seems a little apologetic, using the word "intended." As in, "I intended to draw well, but instead I bombed.")
  

I then ended it with this:

mission statement: cliff notes version
I draw what I know. I'm not trying to make social or political statements. I make stuff that I like.

I was told I shouldn't use the word "stuff" in such a statement, as that was not a professional response.

Whatever.

Labels: art life

Copyright (c) Julie R. Neidlinger      4/18/2008 01:00:00 PM      (1) comments      Links to this post    

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