Writing an Artist Statement

YAWN........ Seriousleh.

It's one of those things that every artst is supposed to have. Some artists pour a ton of work and thought and emotion into them. Others just quickly throw together a couple of paragraphs to say that, yes, they have an artist statement, and conveniently, they do it just in time for some looming deadline. I'm not actually sure how I went about mine- so that's probably a huge red flag that it's time for an update. It was a few years ago- so, yes, definitely time for a change.

I decided I better go ahead and write one now, as opposed to waiting for a time when I suddenly NEED the thing, and end up effortlessly throwing something together... again. If I start one now when I'm not in desperate need for it, that'll give me plenty of time to organize my thoughts, write drafts, edit them, really take my time and be able to step away from it for a while- just like I have to do when working on a painting.

I found a couple of websites that have some great tips on helping you get started.
http://www.mollygordon.com/resources/marketingresources/artstatemt/

That's the main one I used to begin brainstorming. Filling in the blanks and writing general words and phrases- that was the easy part. I did that earlier this week. Last night, I started thinking of other concepts and ideas that I want to get across to the reader, too.

Problem is, I don't consider my art very deep. There's no meaning, just look at it.
It seems like artists who want to convey emotions and feelings would have an easier time writing an interesting statement and explaining the thoughts and feelings they're trying to evoke. I am supposed to write 3 intelligent sounding paragraphs just to say, "Um. It's a pretty picture? Of a flower? I like nature." Stand by for.... procrastination.

And... on to something new.

Red poppy painting is done! Yay! I love completing a painting. I may leave it for a month or so and go back and fix anything as I see fit... But for the most part- yeah, I'm going to call it done.

I'm happy with the poppies, and I didn't strive to make this painting look photo-realistic, for once. It's taken me a few years to really get away from doing that. Because, really, if I wanted it to look like a photograph- and if the composition is something that I am taking from one of my photographs- then why not just print the photograph itself?! So I'm striving to make things look realistic from far away, but up close, making sure that it's obviously a painting.

It was hard to get a good picture of it without getting some kind of a glare (this was the best I could get)... so, once I scan it in, it'll be uploaded into my online gallery.

Then I can figure out how I'm going to frame it, and that's always fun, too. That sense of finishing something feels like such a huge relief, and accomplishment.


But I admit, sometimes the only reason I really go out of my way to finish up a painting is that I have another idea for a painting that I just can't wait to start. And so it was with this one. So today, I started my palm tree painting. Or is it a sea anenome? ...Only time will tell.