Archive: Workshop your Artist Statement!

[Mark Butler]

First stab at an artist statement:

Sculpting for me is re-discovering the art of play, but with heavier machinery and a lot of heat!

My influences often have a scientific background, in the microscopic world and the amazing forms that can be found there and their unseen influence on our world, or the layering of mapping information onto a landscape. I aim to pass on this wonder of the unseen through my work.

I have a fascination with the texture of decay and the mixing of different media. I love the surface of rusted steel, but combining it with the shiny coloured and textured surface of a bronze object bring both to life. After perfecting the art of bronze casting, I now try to introduce deliberate ‘failures’ into some of my work, embracing the unexpected and intriguing results these can produce.

[Deleted User]

Hi Mark, your statement is great. I think the last paragraph is the strongest and most interesting, do you think maybe playing around with the structure a bit could form the second draft? Just to see what it would read like!

[Mark Butler]

<p class=”western”><span style=”font-family: Arial,sans-serif;”>Thanks Lily. This is my second attempt – do you think it’s better or worse?</span></p>
<p class=”western”><span style=”font-family: Arial,sans-serif;”>I have a fascination with the texture of decay and the mixing of different media. I love the patina of rusted steel, but combining it with the shiny, coloured and textured surface of a bronze object bring both to life. After perfecting the art of bronze casting, I now try to introduce deliberate ‘failures’ into some of my work, embracing the unexpected and intriguing results these can produce.</span></p>
<p class=”western”><span style=”font-family: Arial,sans-serif;”>My influences often have a scientific background, in the microscopic world and the amazing forms that can be found there and their unseen influence on our world, or the layering of mapping information onto a landscape. Taking these influences and forming them into a sculpture often happens in my mind’s eye, or as the result of sketching ideas. Making these visions into physical works can often be a challenge, but it is one I relish, and it gives me great pleasure to finish a piece I have coaxed from a rough sketch into a finished sculpture. Sculpting for me is re-discovering the art of play, but with heavier machinery and a lot of heat!</span></p>

[Helen Fraser]

In the process of making a textile, the craftsperson applies their concentration in a meditative fashion, repeating patterns and actions over and over until the piece is complete.  In my art making I use drawing as a meditation.  It is the medium that gets me connected most quickly and deeply to my feelings.  Immediate, it shows me where I am at, right away.  It is honest.  And by drawing textiles and observing them closely I am aiming to get to the heart of the work and it’s maker as a type of honouring of those who have gone before me.

For the last twenty years I have worked as a Psychologist and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist in private practice in Prahran, Melbourne.  This work is about using myself as a tool to facilitate the growth of another person’s mind, so they can think about their thoughts, feelings, desires, dreams, pain, longings and hopes.  Slowly, session after session I see people’s guard come down which allows a mourning process to unfold, softening their spirit in the process.  Being in the privileged position of witnessing the slow unfolding of another’s psyche deeply impacts on my own.  The intensity and beauty as well as the exquisite sorrow of this work is a type of soul poetry which I am searching to express and honour in my drawings and textiles.

 

[Deleted User]

Lovely statement Helen and really made me want to look at your work right away. I think the background really helps and is essential to an Artist’s statement.

[Memet Burnett]

Wow. Very powerful.