On Artist Statements...

How honest can I be...?

This morning I’m not feeling too well and my first task is to write an artist statement for two different things. One for promotional purposes, the other for an application. ‘Tell us a few words about yourself’…. Groan. 

It takes me back to university, when writing an artist’s statement was something everyone had to do and since we hadn’t achieved anything yet, we’d try to think of clever and overly verbose ways of saying….I make art. Please buy it. 

Sometimes I wish I could get away with saying, ‘Sara is an illustrator living in a cold, damp cottage in Scotland. Whilst she would sometimes like do something easier for a living, she has accepted that drawing is her greatest skill and is thus wading up the muddy hill towards being a successful artist. Although very good at drawing pictures, she actually spends much of her time doing things she’s really quite bad at such as self-promotion, marketing, networking, accounting, quoting, emailing, business planning and writing artist statements. All this and she still has to feed herself and get some sleep. She is mostly very happy but also quite tired.’

In reality, I think I’ll mention my inspirations, my interest and enthusiasm for the natural world, the joy of exploring new materials and creative play, and the great privilege of breathing visual life into clients’ ideas and communicating through stories.

Or something like that. 

I’d love to know what you’d say in an honest artist statement!