On this planet, people communicate with words, and your artist statement introduces and communicates the language component of your art. People who come into contact with your art and want to know more will have questions. When you're there, they ask you and you answer. When you're not there, your artist statement answers for you. Or when you're there, but you don't feel like answering questions, or you're too busy to answer questions, or someone's too embarrassed to ask you questions, or you're too embarrassed to answer questions, then your pal, your artist statement, does the job for you.
There are four parts of an artist statement. The first section gives vital information about the art work…like title, artist name, size of the work, and the medium it was created in. The second part is a paragraph that answers the question “What is this art work about?” Next, is another paragraph describes how the artist went about making this art work. Finally, the fourth section is a paragraph that explain why these artworks are significant to the artist.
Below is an example of one of my artist statements.
Talitha (June 2012)
Watercolour and Ink (22 inches by 30 inches)
Michael Koops
This series of watercolours will be about a friend of mine from my youth. Her name was Talitha. A number of years ago, she succumbed to postpartum depression and took her own life. On the day I learned of her passing and the manner of her passing, I was filled with a profound sadness. I had not kept touch with her in years. I thought, “I am a horrible friend”. My poor friend had gone through something so dark that the birth of a child could not bring her joy and I had no idea. I immediately was reminded of a day when Talitha, two other friends, and I spent the day just kind of wandering Victoria, B.C. It was a grey day. There was rain at times, but it didn’t stop us from wandering around Beacon Hill Park. The memory of that day and the joy are juxtaposed on this image of sadness of Talitha bowed down by depression.
In this painting I wanted to capture the feeling of joy and sadness. It seems strange to me that I can feel joy in knowing my friend, but sadness in not knowing her anymore. I started this image as a quick pencil drawing. If I had left it as a pencil drawing, the image would be contemplative, but you would also get a sense of happiness from the girl. She is smiling. However, I knew that I wanted to move into a more sombre tone to the painting and started adding blues and purples and black into the drawing. I used a lot of wash technique to create a soft image, but then used the black ink to make her hair stand out.
In doing some research for this work, I stumbled across a speed painting video of a woman doing some abstract watercolour women. This was the inspiration I needed to approach my painting and the subject I wanted to speak to. The running colours are a direct result of watching that video and add a suggestion of tears and rain that seems appropriate for this painting.
Here is an example of the marking sheet for an Artist Statement:
