Write a Strong Artist Statement...For Yourself First 

Okay, here’s my stab at an artist statement for my upcoming series that I’m currently preparing for/working on: The Colors of Ballard Ballard, my beloved, iconic Seattle neighborhood, inspires me daily, regularly filling me with a sense of small-town warmth. I feel drawn to depict this wonderful "town" and its rich history using my favorite art love language-color-to bring emotion and gem-like vibrance to day-to-day narrative images. My small oil and acrylic paintings serve as odes to the people and places that make this place special. Preparations for these paintings include historical research about the locations and people who have lived here, and going to different places with my palette and paints to color-match key focal points on small paper swatches. I use both on-location sketches and photographs as my source material, and I build preparatory sketches to develop solid compositions to hold the story and the colors together, like little friendly building blocks. When it comes time to make the paintings themselves, I like to keep the brushstrokes lively and casual, in keeping with the approachable vibe of our community. ….That’s all I have for tonight. I’ll have to think about it some more! Thanks for witnessing. I would love to read what is on your mind about what you are working on!

Really made me think more deeply about why I do art. Writing it down with help from seeing others' statements will be useful even if you don't intend to be a career artist. Thank you

Thank you! Great video. I miss seeing you wear a bright color. You rock colors!

Im gping to comment b4 i watch the vid as the title is enough to grab me. i really agree with your first statement. art speak CAN be BS but i think it's truely important to be clear with oneself. Goid idea !

Another wonderful video, and I love your painting. Will share a statement once I've done the 'homework'

I tried chat GPT a couple of months ago to write an artists statement and it sounded fantastic! 😂I think it is a good aid when you ask it to refine the statement and be more specific in what you want from it.😊 I think I need to produce more art before I us an artists statement 'for real'. I want to walk into that painting behind you Anne! It is so warm and inviting. I love the colour choices so much! 😍

I understand the art industry sometimes requires an artist’s statement and this is a great exercise to produce an authentic statement about your work. Would you be able to show examples or talk about when you need an artist statement? I have absolutely no clue when an artist statement is needed. It would be interesting to line up pieces of your work thru the years and see where your artist’s statement you wrote today starts to emerge in your work. It would be fun to see if you have a theme that has been with you always or it emerged and when it happened. I guess that we need to revisit our artist statement every few years to make sure it is still relevant or if we need to rewrite it. Even if you don’t use your artist’s statement in professional applications, I see how useful it would be to keep you focused on the purpose of your work. Very interesting exercise! Thank you!

The prevalence of bs and unwarranted ego is exactly what caused me to become an art school dropout. I'd rather just make the work.

You did it again Anne! You got me hooked when I thought I was just listening as a bystander. I don’t make to sell or display, so I didn’t think your artist statement applied to me. But it got under my skin and I realized it was critical to focus in on why I am doing color. Color and knitting are my work, even if not a business. So here is my statement: “I dye yarn for knitting to capture my love of nature and to create colors that feed me physically and emotionally. For me, color is a nutrient and complimentary colors help me feel complete. The challenge of creatively making colors work drives me forward.”

In graphic design we write a statement not to describe our work or what it is to contain or be about. Rather a statement that as to what it is to do, it's purpose. It is so we don't get distracted by any greatness and everything gets checked: "Is that what is inline with completing the purpose of the project?" What doe it do? On the other hand, I disagree with writing artist statements most of the time, If an artist needs to describe what the piece is about, then they must of failed to communicate with their art and found it necessary to use another language. But that's the way most artist statements are done, after the piece is completed. You know, you have seen enough of them. The artist has a great piece and has no freaking idea what it was about. So they look at it and make up something that sounds good and professional. So I'm doing this semi abstract of a homeless camp. As we know, homeless camps cause a lot of negative vibes, depressed feelings. Except the indigenous Americans weren't all negative and depressed living in their almost exact same camps. And to many of these so labeled homeless, it is an acceptable life in a community. Most always more community like than two faced suburban America. Likely because they need each others support. So my initial artist statement was "To cause folks to see them in a brighter light." "See it as home and community as it should rationally be seen" Of coarse I'm playing with color and shapes to paint a brighter fairy tale than it actually is. But yet if I can change just a few minds about these people, Ive accompanied;ihed my artist statement.