Artist's Statement

What Is an Artist's Statement? A general introduction to your work, a body of work, or a specific project. It should open with the work's basic ideas in an overview of two or three sentences or a short paragraph. The second paragraph should go into detail about how these issues or ideas are presented in the work.

What the REFLECTION'S PROGRAM requires in your artist's statement:

• In your artist statement, tell us about your work and what it means to you.
• How does your work relate to the theme?
• What is your personal connection to the theme?
• What did you use to create your work (e.g. supplies, technology, instrumentation, props, etc.)?
• What/Who was your inspiration?

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What to DO in an artist's statements

• 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 to NOT do in an artist statements

• 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?

www.theartleague.org/blog/2015/08/24/artist-statements-we-love/

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Like an introduction to a good book, your statement presents and conveys the fundamental underpinnings of your art, aspects that people should be aware of. Write it for people who like what they see and want to know more, not those who already know you and everything your art is about. In three to five paragraphs of three to five sentences each, provide basic information like WHY YOU MAKE YOUR ART, WHAT INSPIRES OR DRIVES YOU TO MAKE IT, WHY PEOPLE SHOULD CARE, WHAT IT SIGNIFIES OR REPRESENTS, WHAT IT COMMUNICATES, WHAT'S UNIQUE OR SPECIAL ABOUT HOW YOU MAKE IT, and briefly, WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU. Don't bog readers down, but rather entice them to want to know more. As with any good first impression, your statement should hook and invite further inquiry, like a really good story is about to unfold. Give too little, not too much.