Artist Statements

Yesterday morning I was reading some information on Alyson Stanfield’s site about the Artist Statement. She had a link to a blog by a girl who had followed Alyson’s particular advice about having a good artist statement and how to arrive there.  I found it interesting how her artist statement changed as she followed Alyson’s advice.  Here is the link to Deb Paris’ blog if anyone wants to read it. http://deborahparis-apaintinglife.blogspot.com/2009/01/statement-by-artist.html

I found myself going to read MY artist statement.  Recently I had to submit one with entries into the Form, Not Function exhibit in New Albany, IN.  I submitted one that has been written for at least a year, maybe 2.  It seems, according to Alyson, that artist statements can be pretty important.  I hadn’t really done any recent revisions to mine, but gave it a brief glance and sent it on with the entries.

After reading all of this information  (does anyone spend too much time on the computer like me?…but I learn so much…), then going back to my statement, I could see where one particular line didn’t fit at all with the entry I sent.  Now my statement was originally written as an overall statement of the genre of my work.  It was NOT written for the specific work I sent for jurying, and I’m  still not sure if it was supposed to be. Rayna Gillman sent me her statement and artist bio so I could get an idea of what is supposed to be there. I know I totally messed up on my bio, speaking mainly about where I have come from, but not really speaking much to today’s accomplishments. Oh well, live and learn. Looks like I need to do some more work!

This past weekend I learned that judges in a certain show wanted to give a best of show award to a certain artist, but because of the way her statement was worded, they didn’t.  Wow…maybe it can really make a difference.  In her case, another person was involved in making the art and it sounded like the judges were confused about who actually did the work.

It’s something to think about.

Photo of the day…pine trees on my lane…if I was a kid again, this is where I would play.

Speaking of Art…

Lots of textile and quilt artists enter the art quilt shows.  Me, not so much.  I joined the Arts Council in the next state and town 1 hour away from me, in order to participate professionally with other artists and to promote textiles as art.  Last fall there were 8 members who were asked to participate in a Textile exhibit.  It was an awesome exhibit and everyone’s work was so different from the others. (Of course, I could be partial, being a big fan of textile art and surface design.)  But I did hear it got rave reviews and probably introduced textiles as art in an area that supports a lot of painters.

I came across Joanne Mattera Art Blog today and found it very interesting.  She has two posts called Marketing Mondays: How Dealers Are Considering Artists Now.  There is a part 1 and part 2. She has been interviewing art dealers to ascertain how they are viewing the art market at this time in our economy.  I found it very interesting and hope that it might be for someone else!

Structural