The Artists Statement: Editing, Part 1

After you have written everything, done all of the exercises the next step is to take the best nuggets from everything you've written and compile it into one statement. How do you do that? How do you decide what's good and what isn't.

Hopefully what you've written is wonderful, poetic and free flowing. If it isn't this is your chance to make it read well. One of the best writing tips I can give you is to write the way you speak. Ground all of your writing in that and you will be having a conversation with the reader. This also involves considering who your audience is.  One of the primary mistakes artists make in writing their artists statement is to make it into an art historical or critical assessment of their work. There is a place for that. It's not for you. Leave it to the critic or art historian or juror. Sometimes they will misunderstand your work. It will be in such sophisticated language that you won't even know it because you won't understand it. You, the artist, want to explain your work to the viewer in such a way that anyone can understand it.

Also don't be afraid of repetition.  Remember that poets thrive on repetition.  Most fairy tales - think of Grimm for example - bring magic to the work through repetition.  Read any fairy tale of your childhood and you will see that.  Most things are told three times which helps to build interest and memory before reaching the final point they are making.  Also repetition of words is wonderful.  Like a work of art having a dot of red at the top and following it up with a dot of red somewhere else. Although the viewer may not be aware of it, it's what makes the art great!  It makes even a work of art poetic.  In writing it holds the readers attention.

That said find the nuggets in what you've written that not only fulfill the above, they answer these questions the best:

1. What do you do?

2. What is the message you are trying to convey?

3. How do you do it?

4. Why do you do it?

That last question is the most compelling question to answer for your viewer. Why do you do it? What drives you? What is your deeper need to do it?  What is in your heart and soul that makes you engage in the act of creation. What are you feeling emotionally while you are creating.  What does the art making do for you.  It has to do something, otherwise you wouldn't be doing it, right?  Someone who admires artists but who isn't an artist and can't even conceive of the act of actual creation will be absolutely fascinated with this. It will draw them in and make them want to read more.

Put this together almost like a literary collage. Then begin to make it work. Make it flow. More tips about writing in general and how to move the soul with your words coming soon. Stay tuned