PART ONE

WHAT IS AN ARTIST STATEMENT


MAKING THE NEGATIVE POSITIVE


Contrary to popular belief-that we should start with the positive and work sideways into the negative, which of course we shouldn't even call negative but something bewilderingly positive like challenging-I find starting with the negative invigorating. It's like weeding a garden. You yank up what you don't want, and lo and behold there is enough room for what you do want.

One of the greatest frustrations about an artist statement is deciding what, exactly, it is. To some extent, it depends on who you are. To a gallery owner it might be a good public relations tool. To an art agent, it might be a point-of-purchase tool. To an art patron, it might be the beginning of a collection. But, right now, it is critically important that it be none of these things for you, the artist. An artist needs and deserves uncluttered space for the artist statement to flourish. To that end, we are going to yank up all of the things that an artist statement, to the artist, is not.
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Your part is to exercise your fertile, artistic imagination and create a convincing world for yourself where there are no galleries, no art dealers, no collectors, no critics. Right now, right here, there is only you, your art and the bridge of personal power between the two.

In this real world of your imagination, the starting point is trust: trusting that these three elements are all you actually need.

If you find this difficult or implausible, then let's revive an old, reliable learning tool you will remember best as, let's pretend!
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For the remainder of this book, actively suspend your self-criticism and doubt and pretend that you, your art, and your relationship to your art, in this moment, are completely enough...as indeed, they are.