Writing an art review doesn’t have to be difficult. Start by gathering as much information as possible about the exhibit you’ll see before visiting. Plan on spending a lot of time in the space, making lots of notes, and taking plenty of photos to help you remember and perhaps illustrate your article. There will be people at the venue happy to help for the free publicity.
How to Write an Art Review Read
Writing your artist statement is a rite of passage.
Your artist statement will be requested by everyone from gallery dealers to show promoters to curators to art writers, bloggers, and podcasters. But what exactly is an artist statement?
In truth, there is no strict definition, and there are no precise guidelines for an artist statement. I know it would be a lot easier if there were a standard statement format, but there isn’t.
But I\’ve got your back. I\’ve developed this comprehensive guide to help you write your statement.
Writing Your Artist Statement Read
Peeking at artists’ journals is my definition of heaven. I love to see how ideas develop and change—how creative thought processes evolve.
The illustrations that often punctuate artists’ journals are a bonus that can’t be found in the journals of those less visual.
But don’t keep a journal to satisfy my whims. Keep one for yourself. Write things down in order to remember and reflect. And keep writing because it contributes to your art marketing.
I mentioned journaling last week as a vital part of writing your artist statement. In this latest episode of the podcast, I talk with author/coach/artist Cynthia Morris about journaling. It was recorded over Facebook Live.
Cynthia and I give you a framework to help you commit to a journaling practice and discuss how we use journals for our businesses.
We discuss the types of journals we think are best for this process, why it’s important to write by hand before moving to the computer, a structure for your journaling process, and how to use prompts to get your ideas down.
Remember that we recorded this as a video conversation with one another. Some things might not translate. For example, we did show and tell about our journals. That’s why I’m sharing the video here as well.
Here it is … my conversation with Cynthia Morris about an imperfect journaling practice for artists.
The Art Biz ep. 51: Imperfect Journaling for Artists with Cynthia Morris Read
I’ve been dedicating this blog and my podcast to what you can do now—actions you can take—to stay in control of your art business while galleries, studios, and exhibition venues are shuttered. While art fairs, festivals, and open studios are canceled. In this episode I want to talk about a document you can revisit (or
The Art Biz ep. 50: Guidelines for Your Artist Statement Read
In the spring of 2018, Cathy Read took my Magnetic You course. Now this class isn’t for the faint of heart because it involves a lot of writing. And, if you’re like most of my clients, you really would prefer to get by without more writing.
We work on your artist statement, bio, about page, stories about your art, and your branding. All of your hard work leads to a cohesive presentation that makes you more attractive to buyers, curators, and collectors.
One of the most important lessons in Magnetic You involves meditating on your art. You read that right. Meditating on your art. I insist that art speaks when you give it the time and space to tell you its story. Then you have to capture that story in a journaling process.
Cathy wrote pages and pages about a new body of work. Then she got an idea from another lesson to leverage all of that writing she had done.
It didn’t just stay in a notebook or in a file somewhere in the dark depths of her computer. Nooooo. She put it to work and turned her written stories into audio for an exhibition.
The leap Cathy took from written word to audio involves a different way of thinking. It’s much like how museums consider programming their shows. They don’t simply put up the art along with nearby labels. They have docents who lead tours, scholars who give presentations, activities to expand on a theme, and audio for telling stories.
Why shouldn’t artists do the same when they have their own solo shows?
I asked Cathy all about the process and experience in this episode of the podcast.
The Art Biz ep. 43: Turning Journaling into Audio for Your Art Show with Cathy Read Read
There is no overseer of the perfect artist statement and bio that is going to come get you for not adhering to rules that never existed. Breathe a sigh of relief.
You can’t go wrong unless you have a bunch of type-os, use poor grammar, or don’t align your tenses.
Here are some guidelines for which tenses to use and when when you’re writing your artist statement and bio.
Your bio is about you and your artistic accomplishments. It is not your life story.
It is written in the third person (otherwise, it would be an autobiography). It helps to think of it as your résumé in paragraph form.
Write it in reverse chronological order, acknowledging that your most important accomplishments are those that are most recent. You can open a bio with a short paragraph summarizing your current work. This can be taken from your statement and reworked for the bio format.
In contrast to your bio, which is about your accomplishments, your statement is about your work—the current direction of your work, not the history of how you got to this point. It’s your opportunity to define a body of work before others respond to the work and define it for you.
Your statement—because it is a statement—is written in first person. It is not the definitive statement about your work forever and ever because your work changes. You must allow your statement to get better and to grow along with your art.
My litmus test for a good statement is
Is Your Artist Statement Written in First or Third Person? Read
All is right with the world. I have proof.
I’m at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art to see the Matisse/Diebenkorn exhibition. I arrive early with Rob, my trooper of a husband. He’s agreed to be my companion through the permanent collection galleries before our afternoon ticket time.
What I witness restores my faith in humanity.
Here’s how it goes down.
As a former museum educator, I know that it’s wise to avoid school tours in the galleries. If I had thought about that, I might have visited later in the day. But then I wouldn’t have been fortunate enough to have had this experience.
There is at least one group in each of the galleries. Most students have assignments and a docent.
One docent teaches native Spanish speakers how to say Marcel Duchamp.
Mahr-sel’ Du’-shahn
They giggle.
She stands in front of Duchamp’s Fountain and asks: Is it art? They are pretty certain it isn’t. It’s a urinal, for Pete’s sake.
I don’t stick around to hear more of their reasoning. I already feel like I’m an intruder.
I’m less interested in the art history lecture than in the way these kids are fully engaged with the art. They are hanging on every word she says.
My husband finds me and asks what I’m up to. “This docent is awesome,” I say.
Then I catch a glimpse of another heartwarming scene.
Life Is Beautiful and I Have Proof Read
You sweat over your bio and artist statement.
You make a heroic effort to create interesting content for social media.
You work tirelessly to craft a decent artist talk that will engage an audience.
You curse at the person who told you that it was easy to use iMovie as you grit your teeth through the process of producing your first video.
You meet your deadlines for newsletters and blog posts because, ahem, somebody said you should. (Okay, maybe you didn’t meet the deadlines, but they did go out. You get points for that.)
You didn’t know it, but if you’re doing even a few of the things I mentioned above, you are a word collector.
Don’t worry! Being a word collector doesn’t entail heavy responsibilities. Nor is it likely that your word collection will make it to the auction block one day.
But that doesn’t mean your collection isn’t valuable. It is! I wonder if you know just how valuable.
If you’re like a lot of artists, you have all of these words that are probably being used only one time.
That’s a shame.
There is so much more you can do with your collection of words.
Multiply Your Content by Repeating Yourself Read
No matter how many checklists you have, you can’t begin to fathom the crazy things that could happen … the wacky things that people will say, think, or do.
Has anyone ever installed your art upside down?
Has anyone ever put a weird clause in your contract?
Have you ever [fill in the blank]?
I thought it might be fun to hear about the crazy things that you’ve encountered in your art career and business.
It’s impossible to be prepared for every situation you might encounter in your art career, but hearing first from other artists might help you be ready for the unexpected.
Please leave a comment below.
In Your Wildest Dreams (Curious Monday) Read
It’s Friday.
My calendar says “Writing Time.” Every Friday at this time is blocked out to write. I like going into my weekend knowing that I have written something that will contribute to next week’s newsletter and blog post.
I wish I could say it’s as easy as marking off to write, and it will happen.
It doesn’t always work that way for me. Actually, it rarely works that way for me.
Today I don’t feel like writing. I don’t feel like doing much of anything.
Everything seems to distract me. Do you know this feeling?
Seeking Inspiration While Topic Hopping Read
Get a transcript of episode 182 of The Art Biz (Rethinking Mailing Lists for Artists) followed by a 3-page worksheet to evaluate the overall health and usage of the 3 types of artist lists.
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