Anyone that has spent anytime at all exploring and observing living artists know they come as a package deal: the artist and their statement. While this statement is a great opportunity to put into words for your audience what you try to do visually, they can be wrought with pretentiousness and self-absorbed drivel. The good ones give meaning and depth to the artist’s creations and pique interest, the bad ones make me wish I wasn’t pursuing a career in world’s most pompous industry. And those are the ones that make the task I’ve given myself so daunting! I’ve decided that if I want to be taken seriously as an artist (by others, but more importantly by myself!), I’ve got to churn out a convincing plug about what I’m doing.

I did a little online searching to start this brand-new endeavor, and I was happy to stumble upon this article: http://www.artbusiness.com/artstate1.html (for some reason I’m unable to link–I’m blaming my 2006 MacBook). I think it helped ground me and mentally prepare myself for this task, and it also adroitly explained what my statement should capture. And while I was ready and raring to go with delivering the best statement as soon as possible, I think I’ll be following this particular piece of advice from it:

“Take a few weeks to jot down any fleeting thoughts that come to you about your work. Give yourself permission to gather. Selecting and sorting can come later when you have enough in your basket.”

If someone tells me I can (and maybe even should!) procrastinate, I’m not going to turn them down. So, on that note, stay tuned. Artist statement coming (hopefully very) soon. Happy Friday!