Archive: Workshop your Artist Statement!

[doug]

Ok here goes:

I just re-wrote my artists statement not as a poem but using that form to break it up and emphasize certain words. It is an experiment.

This is an artist statement that would be sent to a public art competition.

Can anybody understand this?

Thanks,

Doug

Artist’s Statement
Douglas Olmsted Freeman

Public Art lives at the intersection of art and community.

I begin with listening
To understand what the community is asking for.
What are your goals?
This provides a framework for ideas.

Next I take a comprehensive look at the site.
Observation
listening to stories, drawing, photographs
study of the environment
If there is a snail, a trilobite, a crocodile
or a mean guitar player
that lives here
I want to know about it

I call this feeding the muse.

I bring these voices and found objects back to the studio
for cooking and deciphering
through sketches and sculptural studies
seeking to give form to that spirit of place

Genius Loci
a symbol, a friend, a muse
a confidant
you decide
your interaction
completes the work

Public Art
finds a home
because it is drawn
from your home place.

[Deleted User]

i think i understand what you’re saying. i had to look up genius Loci. i would say your message is right in line with the feeling on your site. That it’s a creative process that starts with the client and once you have all that info from them i like the image of you retreating to your studio (i picture late at night, a la tim burton) where you ‘cook up’ creative ideas that bring a place to life. It might be just slightly poetic/spiritual sounding for a committee that going to invest tens of thousands, but if you are that guy, it’s perfect.

[doug]

Drew,

Thanks for your comments. Do you think the poetic form is going to help or hurt the message?

Doug

[Crista Cloutier]

Doug, for what it’s worth – I like the format. In this instance I think it works.

[Anahata Ishaya]

Oh how beautiful Doug. I can almost see you doing more poetry and illustrating it with your artwork.

[Deleted User]

Okay here’s my first shot at an artist statement. I have a feeling it’s something that is always a work in progress..

For me, paintings are like journeys. Sometimes I know exactly where I want to go, other times I’m just out to see what I can find. But I never know exactly where I’ll end up, there’s always some mystery about it. Much of the time I am improvising, either trying to express specific feelings through color and brush stroke, or alluding to something in the world I’m looking at or have seen. In the end my hope is that I build even relationship between forms, against space, with line, that there is still room for the viewer to interpret, see different ways and be of interest to the viewer, myself included. And while I can help guide the work, they are individual reflections of what I’ve seen in the world and have a life of their own.

 

[sandrajordan]

Hi Drew

I feel I should start by saying it took me AGES to get an artist statement I was happy with! I only have a couple of minor comments and they are my own personal opinion so feel free to ignore if they don’t suit.

I would take the word ‘but’ out of ‘But I never know’. The sentence sounds stronger, more defined without it, like you like that part of the process.  I’m not sure about the ‘improvising’ part, to me it sounds like you are unsure of your artistry.  Would ‘I express specific feelings…..’ sound better? eg I express specific feelings through color and brush stroke, building even relationship between forms, against space, with line.

 

 

[doug]

Hi Drew

Very good opening “For me paintings are like journeys” then
“there’s always some mystery about it” These give the reader something to reflect on. I would leave out Sometimes I know… and But I never know exactly…
Remember they will see your painting too and there you have gone on the journey.

Doug