Guide to Writing Artist Statements

1. Start off well right out the gate

Avoid starting off with the words "My work is", "In my work", or anything that address you in the first few words. Probably 70 percent of artist statements start off this way, and the first thing you want to do is position yourself away from the pack. Any gallery owner, grad school, scholarship committee, after looking through possibly hundreds of statements, will appreciate the effort you take to make something unique.

2. Keep it simple, straightforward.

Run on sentences are the most common mistakes I see in artist statements. It is like the artist is literally trying to use the sentence to illustrate the long journey it took them to get to an idea. Be ambitious, but also economical. Read your statement out loud before turning it in to make sure it sounds good. Ask someone else to read it aloud back to you.

3. Put the same love into your writing as you do your work

Short doesn't mean it must be so simple it is boring. Writing is an art in of itself. Please understand the use of active tense as opposed to writing in passive tense. Break out a thesaurus and use different words to describe things. Instead of saying "I carve plaster" say " I methodically chip away at the brittle surface of the object until it becomes as smooth and tactile as skin". Don't be afraid to use facts in your work, like talking about how you made the work. As long as it supports your artist intentions.

4. Avoid Cliche

It is easy to get carried away with your words until the words say things that the artwork doesn't. Avoid cliches such as " I am interested in beauty in art". Too vague, be specific. Unless you are prepared to write a paper about how you define beauty and how culture as a whole defines beauty, your work probably can't honestly speak for such a huge concept by itself. It is safe to stick to your experience until you have studied your subject enough to cite research on a broader social level.

5. Use words that match the work.
Is your work whimsical? Or is it violent? What is the scale? Make sure your prose reflects the qualities of what it describes. Using verbs and adjectives that really match the qualities of your creative output will create a statement that both excites and informs. Have you found a great quote from an artist, writer, philosopher, or theologian that you feel speaks to your process, form, or content? Consider using it as an introduction to your statement, or even as the statement itself! I recommend looking for inspiration online or in the art theory books gathering dust on your shelves.

Answer these questions in order in your artist statement and you will have a pretty good start. An artist statement for one body of work should be 1 paragraph average, and 2 to 3 or more for a whoe body of work.

WHY YOU MAKE YOUR ART, WHAT IT'S MADE OUT OF (briefly), and HOW YOU ART SYMBOLIZES A LARGER CONTEXT (connect it to personal memories, research, sociology, other interests, relationship to the viewer.