An Artist Statement Is Not...

"One of the greatest frustrations about an artist statement is deciding what, exactly, it is. To some extent, it depends on who you are. ... Your part is to exercise your fertile, artistic imagination and create a convincing world for yourself where there are no galleries, no art dealers, no collectors, no critics. Right now, right here, there is only you, your art and the bridge of personal power between the two. ... An artist statement is not a resume. ... An artist statement is not a biographical summary of your work. An artist statement is not a critique. ... An artist statement is not a list of accomplishments. ... An artist statement is not a marketing tool! ... The point of an artist statement is to be in service to your art, not the marketplace. Identifying an artist statement as something immediately and primarily for marketing - Do not pass go! Do not collect artistic integrity! diminishes the spirit behind your work. Like art which is created with the pocketbook in mind, artist statements that focus on the shallow "point of purchase" technique lose their authenticity, their authorship, and their unique reflections. Marketing strategies, by their very nature, are designed to be manipulative, while the power of an artist statement lies in the authenticity of its authorship. When you define an artist statement as a marketing ploy, ti effectively undermines the sincerity needed for a convincing compelling statement. We humans instinctively know when something is done with care or not. There is a resonance of the cared for that is unmistakable. We may not be able to say exactly why, or what, we are responding to, but when something is done with respect to authenticity and the spirit, respond we do. ... It is true that your artist statement may end up being used as a marketing tool - only one of several possible applications - but that is not what it is. ... Like the art that it reflects, an artist statement uses its sincerity of purpose and its purity of intent to create a powerful word-reflection of the art and the artist. Once that has been accomplished, and only then, will your artist statement have a fighting chance of becoming an effective marketing tool. What the artist statement asks is that you reveal your soul. Ariane Goodwin "Writing the Artist Statement"