•Allow room for growth in your artist statement – your subject of interest may shift over the years so be certain that your statement reflects your current focus as oppose to making a declaration about what you plan to create for the rest of your life.
•Reevaluate your artist statement periodically to see if your focus still matches what you wrote.
•Good practice for working on your artist statement is applying for grants and fellowships. They usually require you to write some sort of statement about your work that forces you to examine the purpose of what you create.
•Avoid “art jargon” instead speak in common language that can be understood by most people whether they are avid followers of the art world or not.
•Be honest – don’t seek to impress just seek to inform. Most people can spot insincerity right off, while being genuine will in most cases make the purpose behind your work easier to understand (and easier to write).
•Don’t believe the myth that artists are challenged when it comes to writing about their own work; instead, accept it as a requirement for being an art professional and a great opportunity to communicate with your potential collectors!
•Unless a longer statement is called for, two or three solid paragraphs should be enough to convey the purpose of your work. As a simple guide, remember to answer the “who”, the “what”, and the “why” behind the art you create.
Tags: art tips, beginning artists, career advice
This is the most challenging thing for me. Prolly because I’ve never been formally trained. I consider myself to be an outsider in the realm of art, so I don’t call myself an “artist.” I think you need a pedigree for that.
It’s unfortunate for me cause I really would have liked to have gone to art school
but I can’t paint or draw , and at that time – 2D and Sculpture was all I was aware of so I was out of luck.
I think If I were a young person today it would be a different story. Digital tools and equipment has made my medium of choice (photography) more accessible than it’s ever been in the past (cost, speed of production, marketing opportunities). Ahhh, I long to be young again. Lol
-Aneky43251
P.S. you are a truly talented artist – “Saraphim” is absolutely outta control and “Fulani Derived” is all kinds of dangerous.
Thank you for your comment.
The pedigree issue comes into play primarily if you are attempting to sell through high-end galleries other than that circumstance I don’t feel an official art degree is necessary to practice art. With enough tenacity, skills can be cultivated and it’s not unusual for artists who did not attend a degree program in the arts to cobble together their own education through multiple resources. Even though I did go through a BFA program, representational art was pretty much ignored in my curriculum, so I have been putting together a supplementary education for myself through books, workshops, videos, continued life-drawing to improve my knowledge of anatomy and other aspects of painting – learning is continuous.
And thank you for the comments about my work, I truly appreciate it