I’ll be completely honest with you.

I hate writing.

I always have. I’ve never been anywhere near eloquent. I was the slowest writer in my class in elementary, and I switched back to printing as soon as they let us. In junior high, I’d doodle instead of taking notes. University art history classes were spent drawing whatever was being shown on the slides. One of the main things holding me back from applying to graduate programs is the essay writing.

Why am I writing a blog then?

I’m told practice makes perfect. The more I write, the more natural it will come. I’ll be better at finding the words I want to use. And it won’t take me so darned long to do it.

I’ve never really understood the need to write about one’s art. It’s visual art. You look at it. I intensely dislike seeing some art and then needing to read a page of text to understand the meaning of it. I firmly believe that a good visual artist says all they need to say in their work, and any text provided is just a bonus. If I see a painting I like, I like it because it looks good. It’s visually stimulating. I don’t want or need the artist telling me why it’s good.

Contemporary art culture demands an artist statement. I can understand the desire of art galleries and curators to read such text from an artist when they are first exposed to their work. A good artist statement contextualizes the work within an artist’s practice and shows the dedication of the artist to their own career. A statement can also describe the work itself, which is helpful because most gallery submissions are made through reproductions of the works, which is far less preferable to seeing the work in person.

For a viewer, however, to require such a statement to fully appreciate an artwork is ludicrous. Visual art is for seeing. Not reading about. If it is not visually compelling, it is an unsuccessful work.

I am still struggling in drafting my own statement. I have my ideas, I know why I paint and want I want to achieve. But to put it into words is a whole other story. I have trouble finding the words and putting them in order to convey what it is I want to say. I’d rather be in the studio, painting.

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Retro art of the week!

Day Two, Acrylic on Canvas, 48 x 72″, 2006

Inspired by: God creating the heavens and separating them from the waters.