Archive: Workshop your Artist Statement!

[TaLisa.]

open for feedback, thanks!

TaLisa. Artist Statement
The images I paint are symbols of strength and diversity, which is a reflection of my family and cultural background. My work illuminates universal beauty. I’m attracted to many types of flowers, often complex and colorful arrangements that I incorporate into my work. I study botanical illustrations to understand their function and design from an inside-out perspective. Besides nature, the simple elegance of black and white typography is also intriguing. This diversity of design elements is my natural aesthetic. As a mixed media painter, I use contemporary and traditional art techniques. Combining spray paint, ink, and oil to create expressive marks in a soulful and sophisticated manner.

 

 

[Michal Tkachenko]

Hello, TaLisa. Thanks for being the daring first to post your artist statement. I find them really hard to write myself.

I just read your artist statement without looking at your work. I will look, but sometimes I find it fun to get an image of what I think work might look like from the artist statement. Off the top of my head you leave me wanting way more! That is good and better than wanting way less. Throughout, I want more specifics about your family and cultural background that you talk about. All I can do is look at your profile photo and try to guess what it might be. It would give the viewer something really tangible to relate and link into your work with. Don’t be too safe by keeping everything general. What is universal beauty? Can you specifically describe it? Just substitute your description for those words. What specific types of flowers and arrangements and how do you incorporate it into your work? is typography just intriguing or does it inform your work? You mention a lot of things that seem to influence your work and it would be great to hear you really state them in a way which you are confidently in charge and the leading world expert in how they link in. Don’t sound hesitant about it. The last sentence I would leave out the words expressive, soulful, and sophisticated and let the viewer make those assumptions. Is that too overwhelming?

The main two points are: be specific and avoid generalities. Be really confidant and add a bit of ego in there. The hardest part is writing something in the first place and it is much easier to shape something that already exists.

Thank you again for taking that first step!

[TaLisa.]

here goes  🙂 answers for me & my process, to Michal’s tough but excellent questions.

• Wanting more specifics about my family and cultural background? Looking at my photo and try to guess what it might be? This is probably the toughest for me, because of my life experience with it. Women in my family have been very strong, positive, powerful role models for me (mother, grandmother, godmother, aunts, cousins). Sometimes too strong for our own good. I’m attracted to painting women with big hair (we all don’t have big hair), and don’t have the same urge to paint men. The cultural piece is that i’m Black. I am technically biracial – however i was raised in a Black home; 2 black parents, all black extended family. Unsure what someone sees when they look at my profile photos. Then my full name is totally misleading and outside of the standard norms for names in a hispanic culture. Its very confusing to others that are not in my immediate family. So after a lifetime of all this confusion, i wonder does it really mater? Should it matter? Why do people want to know this? It seems that when i tell them, they don’t want to accept it. I’m rambling now…
• Yes, I have been very safe with my word choices. I agree that I need to be confidently in charge.
• What is universal beauty? Can you specifically describe it? Universal beauty is aesthetically pleasing and/or inclusive for everyone, every race, every background, every culture. While my paintings will not be aesthetically pleasing to everyone, i have given them the invitation.
• What specific types of flowers and arrangements and how do you incorporate it into your work? A lot! off the top of my head i’ve done roses, anemones, ranunculus, magnolias, and my own spin off of all sorts of florals. From my studies, true technical botanical illustrators would probably hate my work, lol. Botanical illustrators were masters of detailing every nuance of their subjects, often from live flowers too. Just that amount of time and detail is fascinating. Contrarily, I’m an abstract painter and i paint quickly. Perhaps i haven’t arrived at the end vision of this exploration, but florals are very inspiring.
• is typography just intriguing or does it inform your work? i have used letterforms in my work. i often write into my paintings (my brushstrokes). Black & white typography is minimal yet bold, makes a statement with out all the fluff.
• Leave out the words expressive, soulful, and sophisticated and let the viewer make those assumptions? I would argue then, to also leave out my cultural background details and let the viewer decide. I’m not stuck on having that line in there. They are words that i connect with though.

anyone else can chime in.

 

[Michal Tkachenko]

TaLisa,

How fascinating your family sounds and your cultural background. One of my good friends is half Chinese and half Scottish and she talks a lot about self identity and what the present culture views as her cultural identity. Interestingly she says that most places she has travelled she is assumed to be native to that country. She has been to South America, India, Europe and the Middle East. I find that fascinating and I read an interesting mystery into your profile picture and images as well. So this would also fascinate me to see it woven into your work and artist statement too. I guess I love stuff like that and want to know more and more about it. It sounds like your work might also be quite a bit about exploring your identity too.

The botanical illustration influence intrigues me too. I want to know more about that mostly because I don’t know much about that type of illustration but also like them.

I love how you have described everything back to me quite boldly and in wonderful detail!

[TaLisa.]

Michal – thats is very interesting that your friend is assumed to be native in other countries! you are also correct that i’ve been exploring identity. i’m in process of writing more in my statement as Crista suggested. It might come out pretty crazy, but its just another draft. thanks again for all your help.

[Crista Cloutier]

TaLisa, I’m going to chime in here too. I think that Michel’s insightful questions spurred you to think. But I want them to spur you to write!

When I look at your artist statement I see a lot of sentences that start to say something but then go into the next direction. Can you keep playing with it? Can you expand on some of these statements? That right, I’m asking, can you write another, longer, artist’s statement.

And maybe you’ll find that you want to leave some of it out. That’s okay. But right now, I think what Michal was picking up on, is that it feels fractured. You start to reveal something but then you stop and start to reveal something else. We get lots of tastes but nothing to chew on.

[TaLisa.]

Here’s what I have…

The images I create are symbols of strength and diversity. As a mixed media painter, I use contemporary and traditional techniques. Combining spray paint, ink, and oil to make expressive marks. I paint women to represent strength. These are not portraits, rather symbols of expression. Women in my family have been very strong, positive role models for me. I always create with the purpose of having a body of work that is soulful and sophisticated. I’m attracted to many types of flowers, often complex and colorful arrangements that I incorporate into my work. Botanicals are the most inspiring equivalent of diversity. This aspect reflects my cultural background. I admire the precision of botanical illustrations; however I work quickly in the developing stages. The pieces that I finish as abstracts are often created from a sense of true freedom in the studio. Besides nature, the simple elegance of black and white typography is also intriguing. This contrast of design elements is my natural aesthetic. My work illuminates universal beauty. I invite every person, from all races and backgrounds to consider that there is more than meets the eye. Or in my case, more than meets the name.

[Crista Cloutier]

TaLisa, wonderful statement! I would give it some paragraphs because it is a confusing read to go from one topic to another. Bravo!

[TaLisa.]

Hooray! Thank you! i actually had it in paragraphs before i posted, lol. i think because i don’t 100% love the flow, especially the last section. But I am going to move forward with this one and i guess edit as i go.

[martina.delange60]

Hi Talisa, I like your latest statement. It is at once more general and more focused on your why , I think.

I am very conscious of the insanity of labeling people. You are “mixed” nothing – simply your wonderful, talented self! I recently spoke to a young woman who has an identical twin. She was very fed-up with the curiosity and ignorance and cheek displayed by relative strangers who ask her questions about her twinship 😉  People are just curious about anything out of the ordinary, I think. Maybe you should craft a kind of logo: an elegant standard answer to such queries. No need to explain all the details to every person. Irrelevant, surely?

[TaLisa.]

hi Martina – i meant “mixed media” as the art technique, not myself (if thats how you read it). that’s all still up for revision. i’d like to have  just a one line statement 🙂 maybe one day.

[Deleted User]

Thank TaLisa it great to be introduced to your art and the meaning behind it. I wonder how you would like others to feel when they look at your work?

[TaLisa.]

interesting question. i don’t intentionally create paintings thinking… “i want the viewer to feel ____ when they see this.” i have collected feedback about what others think about my work when they see it (empowering, bold, blissful, to name a few). but perhaps i should take more control and ownership of the message (that’s why i’m here 🙂 i know i want a very positive message. i’d want my devoted collectors to look at my work, appreciate uniqueness and elegance just from the piece. like there is something different about this painting.. cant exactly put my finger on it, but whatever it is, i need to buy it.