Artist Statements for Alison's Intro to Digital Media Projects:
How to Write an Artist Statement
An artist statement is a specific written statement about an artist’s work.
It is brief (a few sentences long) to give support to the visual experience. I
t works as a means to present and give context to the work.
There are two types of artist statements.
Artist statements are always tricky to write. It is a balance of not telling too much about your work, and not giving too little.
Be careful to not use too many “artspeak” words or too plain of language.
You want to sound intelligent, but not to outcast your audience who does not major in art.
Within your artist statement you need to cover some points:
-Why you created this work (not because it was an assignment)
-Anything that was important in the process of creating the work (you challenged
yourself to create a whole video in 24 hours from concept to production, or your
photographs were only shot on film that was cross processed)
-How the audience should react to the work, or rather your intentions for creating
the work
-Are there any unanswered questions or open ended responses that they work is
giving to the viewer
-Any relevant readings or artists that inspired the work (IE a political movement,
the surrealists, or pages from your diary).
Sometimes the artist statement needs to answer the “who, what, when, where,
and why”
But sometimes things may need to be withheld from the artist statement, to allow
the audience to formulate their experience.
For our purposes in this class
Each Project is required to have an artist statement.
Your artist statement should not be written last minute.
Your artist statement should be at least a short paragraph but NOT longer than two paragraphs.
An artist statement is a specific written statement about an artist’s work.
It is brief (a few sentences long) to give support to the visual experience. I
t works as a means to present and give context to the work.
There are two types of artist statements.
- A general one to support an artist’s over all work.
- Then there is a specific one that speaks to only a body of work.
Artist statements are always tricky to write. It is a balance of not telling too much about your work, and not giving too little.
Be careful to not use too many “artspeak” words or too plain of language.
You want to sound intelligent, but not to outcast your audience who does not major in art.
Within your artist statement you need to cover some points:
-Why you created this work (not because it was an assignment)
-Anything that was important in the process of creating the work (you challenged
yourself to create a whole video in 24 hours from concept to production, or your
photographs were only shot on film that was cross processed)
-How the audience should react to the work, or rather your intentions for creating
the work
-Are there any unanswered questions or open ended responses that they work is
giving to the viewer
-Any relevant readings or artists that inspired the work (IE a political movement,
the surrealists, or pages from your diary).
Sometimes the artist statement needs to answer the “who, what, when, where,
and why”
But sometimes things may need to be withheld from the artist statement, to allow
the audience to formulate their experience.
For our purposes in this class
Each Project is required to have an artist statement.
Your artist statement should not be written last minute.
Your artist statement should be at least a short paragraph but NOT longer than two paragraphs.
GOOD ARTIST STATEMENT --
John Hitchcock
My current artwork consists of hybrid mythological creatures (buffalo, wolf, boar, deer, moose) based on childhood memories and stories of growing up in the Wichita Mountains of Oklahoma. I explore notions of good and evil, cycles of death and life. My depictions of beasts, animals, and machines act as metaphors for human behavior and cycles of violence. My artwork is a response to intrusive behavior by humans toward nature and other humans.
John Hitchcock
My current artwork consists of hybrid mythological creatures (buffalo, wolf, boar, deer, moose) based on childhood memories and stories of growing up in the Wichita Mountains of Oklahoma. I explore notions of good and evil, cycles of death and life. My depictions of beasts, animals, and machines act as metaphors for human behavior and cycles of violence. My artwork is a response to intrusive behavior by humans toward nature and other humans.