Artist Statement

Artist Statement

From the Syllabus

Part 5:  Artist Statement.  In your final section, you will offer an artist statement to communicate what you want a reader to know or understand about your work.  (1-2 pages)

 

More Details

Congratulations!  You’re almost done!  You only have one more piece of this semester-long assignment to write, and in many ways, it will be the easiest. 

For this assignment, I want you to imagine that a reader will encounter your graphic narrative chapter without the benefit of reading the first three parts of your semester-long writing assignment.  This reader will, however, have your artist statement to accompany your work, and that piece will serve to introduce him or her to your piece.  Your job is to welcome a reader into the experience of reading your narrative.  (Consider it almost like a museum placard that guides a viewer into a deeper understanding of the work.) 

The exact content of your artist statement is up to you.  However, these ideas might get you started: 

  • Introduction.  Consider the artist statement an introduction to your work.  What do you need or want someone else to know about your piece before they begin reading it?  Anticipate what kinds of questions people might have, and answer them ahead of time so that they are free to enjoy and understand your work. 
  • Why?  Often readers want to understand about what prompted the piece.  There are various ways you could go about addressing the “why,” including your inspiration, your motivation, your connection to the subject matter, your influences, etc.  Why did you create this piece?  (Avoid saying, “Because my teacher made me.” J)
  • What does it mean?  This matter is tricky, because you don’t really want to control how a reader/viewer responds to or interprets your work.  Instead, you want to let them know what making this piece has meant to you. 

Or, in other words, an online guide to writing an artist statement says that the document should address the following:  “why you make your art, what inspires you to make it, what it signifies or represents, what’s unique or special about how you make it, and briefly, what it means to you.”  (See “Your Artist Statement:  Explaining the Unexplainable;” link below.)

Note:  Your artist statement does not have to be structured like an academic essay.  (Therefore, it’s not necessary to have an intro, thesis, etc.)

More help:

 

Joanne Janssen, Baker University

Friday, 04/15/2016 - 19:04

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