I Write Artist Statements. Liz Sales

       Introduction

      At some point in their career, an artist will more than likely be involved in the process of writing an artist statement. They will often think this creation to be a simple task until they actually have to do it. The art of describing themselves and their work is not an easy feat. They will panic. They will sweat. They will, as Gene Fowler says, “sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on [their] forehead.”

      Everyone should try to write about their creative work. Writing is just an organized form of thinking, and thinking about your work helps you to make better work. However, many artist statements end up vague, lyrically romantic, verbose, obviously trying to impress with unnecessary vocabulary. Pompous things to avoid include too many quotations from philosophers, writers, or artists and too much technical talk. The point of an artist’s statement is not to provide the audience with a complete education or to highlight in jargon all the complicated aspects of a manual that most folks cannot comprehend. Its challenge is to distill and clarify an artist’s intention in an accessible way through language. Who are you? What did you make? How did you make it? And why is that important to you? People are interested in other people, and their narratives and the statements should be welcoming.

      Liz Sales is an artist, and also a go-to person to help navigate this system. She has provided assistance to countless other artists who feel that making work and being able to write concisely and articulately about it are two entirely different skill sets. In this little paperback, Liz uses her understanding of the structure of the artist statement to construct statements for fictional photo-based artists that satirize art school, gallery, and popular photography clichés, as well as describe impossible projects that simply could not exist off the printed page.

      —Matthew Carson, head librarian and archivist, International Center of Photography

       Things that don’t quite make sense can be most valuable tools.

      —David Wilson, director, Museum of Jurassic Technology

       Truth may be stranger than fiction, goes the old saw, but it is never as strange as lies.

       (Or, for that matter, as true.)

      —John Hodgman, The Areas of My Expertise (2005)

       Beginning a written work with a succession of semi-obscure quotes is often a sign of insecurity.

      —Anonymous

       The Mad Libs Statement

       Martin Shear

      Martin Shear is a self-taught artist who works as a custodian at an elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee,

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