Benefits of Writing An Artist Statement

"Writing an artist statement benefits you in many, many ways. For one, it strengthens your bond to your work by actively validating and affirming what you do. For another, the process of writing about your art increases your awareness. When it is working well, an artist statement has the ability to make you sit up and take notice of your own work in a new light. It may even be influential in pushing you through a transition , or giving you the language foothold you need to swing up to the next level. It may even stimulate a desire in you to play with the words in the same way you play with the medium of your art. The artist statement is also a place where connections can emerge between unconscious symbolism and conscious living. (…) Since an artist statement doesn’t have to be a definite, intellectual comment of your work, but a reflection about your relationship to your art, you can speak about the mysterious and unknowable element with the same authority, and authenticity that you use to speak about your choice of materials. At its best, an artist statement celebrates your work, (…) your relationship to your creativity and passion. (…) An artist statement creates a connection, a bond between art, artistic, and audience, historically created by proximity and familiarity. (…) We have created a very different social structure in the 21st century, one of disconnection, fragmentation, and dislocation. Yet our desire to know our neighbor has not changed. An artist statement is simply, elegantly, another way to know our neighbor." Ariane Goodwin "Writing the Artist Statement"