Thoughts On The Artistic Process, Artist's Statements, Etc.

Click HERE for a blog post by photographer Paul Butzi, who, in the very first line of the post, writes, "I hate artist's statements." He proceeds to make a humorous argument against the concept of an artist's statement. He makes good arguments. And, although I could make some arguments about why artist's statements are helpful tools, I can't say that his argument is wrong, per se, or even flawed in any way. You may sympathize when you read what he has to say.

Below is a video in which painter Lucio Pozzi talks about an exhibit of what he calls "Mini Paintings". When you consider that most of his work is large enough to take up an entire gallery wall, calling these paintings "mini" seems like an extreme understatement. These paintings are a side-project he has done for decades that is a huge contrast from the rest of his work. Most of the video doesn't speak to any of the concerns brought up in class, but eventually he begins to talk about how when he works with these mini paintings, they act as a way for him to relax a bit, and that he insists on "not knowing what I'm doing" while he works on them. He has rules that remain consistent for all of these works, but after that he just goes for it, doing whatever feels natural without planning. He ends the video with a statement along the lines of, "It is a good feeling to spend some time working on these rather than getting up in the morning and saying, 'Ok, now I have to make another Lucio Pozzi.'" I think, perhaps, he may be speaking to similar frustrations to those voiced in class. In other words, what I think Pozzi is saying here is, "The work that I am known for is an exploration of concepts that I have to think about, question, and plan for. That is rewarding, but exhausting. It is nice to occassionally break away from that and work on something that is just as rewarding in the end, but requires far less planning and thinking." This is a decades-long established, successful, and historically important artist saying the same things that you, as students, are saying.

And now we have April Gornik. Yes, another painter. But, listen to her trying to put into words the things she thought about while making the work in the particular exhibition that she was displaying. She uses some flowery language, and it is easy sometimes to get lost in everything she is trying to communicate. I have shown this video to Art Appreciation classes, of which about 2/3 of the students have no art background at all. Often, the comments that I get afterward are along the lines of "Why did she talk so much about those paintings? I was enjoying just looking at the work. Then she started talking too much. The work didn't need all that explanation. It's all right there anyway. She made it all too technical. etc." See what you think...

Here's my point. The concerns you guys have in class are not new. They are as old as the establishment of "fine art" itself. The age-old question is: "Why can't it just be enough that the work is done?" I get it. These are valid concerns. So valid, that, as you can see above, well-established artists struggle to address them as well. In answer to your questions about why we are working in a method that seems to be chronologically backward from how you've worked previously, I present two considerations:

1. Thinking about what you want to say and planning exactly how you are going to say it BEFORE actually attempting to do the work gives you direction and puts you better in touch with yourself, your interests, and what it is that you want to tell the world. Let's put it in terms of professions other than art: Do you want the mechanic working on your car's engine to just dive in and start experimenting with everything without first spending a little time thinking about what the problem might possibly be and developing a plan? If a scientist wants to conduct an experiment, he has to first decide what question he wants to answer (how does gravity work? what is the atomic weight of hydrogen? is nicotine addictive? etc.). Then he has to develop a plan for an experiment that will get him results that will answer his specific question. We often like to place art on a pedestal separated from other professions because it is so uniquely (and humanly) expressive and has no right or wrong answers. But, art is not so unique of an endeavor that it shouldn't require at least a little early planning and legwork to be GOOD art.

2. The profession of art requires proposals and artist's statements, often times LONG before the work is finished. Even in fashion photography, wedding photography, or advertising, you will be asked by your client to give a full description of what you plan to do, how you plan to do it, and what you want the audience to experience when looking at your images. It is difficult to do that without having practiced. So, perhaps in whatever professional capacity you plan to use photography, your client may not expect you proceed with your work in exactly the same manner in which I am asking you to proceed. BUT, my hope is that, by getting some practice in defining, refining, and perfecting your conceptual approach NOW you will be all the more ready when your professional situation demands it.

WHEW! Ok, so, I hope this helps put some of your concerns to rest. Other than this, I can only say that this is how we're going to do things in this class. If you have disagreements with the process, then make your own decisions on how you will work when you leave this class. My job here and now is to get all three of you to think HARD about why you do what you do and to facilitate your discovery of methods of communicating your particular "why" to your audience.

Make sense?

For Allison: Narrative Environment Images

Christopher Crawford has a wonderful series of photographs titled "Forgotten Indiana". Before you just completely give up on your church door idea, give his work a look. The vast majority of them are, indeed, examples of narrative environment. There are no people in any of these images, but the story of what happened in each environment is in the details. He also gives a literal narrative that he has written to accompany each photo when you click on it, but these aren't really even necessary. The narrative that we, as audience, construct in our minds based on the details we see in the photograph is the real point. Some of these images are very specifically of doors. See if there's anything here that helps you validate your church door idea.

There's also Joe Miller's series of "Places" photographs, which have some relationship to what you're talking about, I think. Check them out HERE.

So, before you give up completely, look at what others have done with similar concepts. THEN make up your mind.

For Sara-Lane: Some Fashion/Art Photographers

HERE is a gallery of images by Candice Wouters. As you can see, Wouters seems to be very interested in fashion and making "beautiful" pictures. Her work has, if not an "old" look, at least a "retro" look. This comes from her use of color, lighting, and the faded-out nature of some of the prints. The have a 60s, 70s, and in some cases early 80s appearance. But, pay attention to what she's doing here. She's not JUST making "awesome-looking" images (which they certainly are). She's got a purpose for them, and it's not particularly what you called "some deep meaning". She is trying to subvert the conventions of "fashion photography" by applying them to (in most cases) self portraiture. She's using a high-fashion stylistic approach for her own purposes. Is she trying to get us to think about how women have been portrayed in the mass media images to which these refer? Is she trying to give us a powerful woman in the type of imagery in which women have historically been merely sex objects? Whatever she may be trying to convey, she has us thinking. And it's because of conceptual choices that she made and the interactions, within each image, between the subject (figure) and her environment. In the case of the work your planning, what is the relationship between subject and environment going to make us think about? What are these images going to do?

Also, check out these links to photos by August Bradley:

http://www.augustbradley.com/

August Bradley Fashion Photography

Notice how what he's interested in is taking old Baroque and High Renaissance portraiture conventions and combining them with the conventions of contemporary high-fashion photography. Now, he does some major digital manipulation of these images to give them the appearance of something that exists somewhere between photography and painting/illustration. Still, I think there are things to observe and learn from in his work. It is the creation of something that feels almost too perfect to be real, while simultaneously too realistic to be a complete fabrication that is Bradley's main focus. He wants us to notice the reference to older master paintings while forcing it to coexist with high-fashion.

Maybe neither of these artists speak to exactly what you want your particular series to do. I just want you to notice that each of them has a specific purpose behind his or her images. So, what do you want your work to do? Or, at the very least, how, specifically, are they going to communicate the things that you are interested in when it comes to fashion and the antique?

For Caroline: Documentary Photographs Of Events

Here are a couple of galleries of documentary photographs of events by photographer Nicole Kuntz:

THE BUSINESS AT THE TRIPLE ROCK SOCIAL CLUB: MINNEAPOLIS, MN

WEEKEND NACHOS/RELENTLESS/BRING THAT SHIT : ECLIPSE RECORDS 2010 ST.PAUL, MN

Notice that what seems to interest Nicole Kuntz in these particular series is not only capturing and recording the things that happened at these events, but the subculture of the people attending and participating in the events. She also uses a flash followed by a long exposer in order to get motion blur effects to depict and communicate the frantic and frenzied energy of the moment.

Claire Martin takes amazing documentary photographs focusing on mundane or "everyday" life, but she seeks out human beings who make for unique and maybe even unusual subjects. So, although she may intend a completely objective motive, it is her juxtaposition of ordinary/mundane/everyday events with extraordinary/unique/grotesque people that clue us into what Claire finds interesting.

So, in answer to your questions in class, I suggest this: looking at these photographs, very documentary and experimental in style, do you think that each photographer went into the situations she was photographing without some idea of what it was she was looking for and some idea of how she was going to accomplish what she wanted to communicate? Kuntz seems to have made very specific decisions about where to stand and her aperture and shutter speed settings to capture the feeling of that place. Those, I will gamble, were choices made beforehand with specific concepts in mind. The consistent manner in which Martin presents her images of the unusual participating in the mundane tells me that she very intentionally made conceptual decisions ahead of time, before going out and looking for her subjects. BUT, would I suggest that they restricted themselves to ONLY work within those parameters while shooting? Not at all! Without experimentation, without seeking out new and interesting ways to communicate one's ideas, a photographer will merely constantly return to interpretation mechanisms and formats with which he or she is familiar, and the resulting images become stale. I hope this puts at least SOME of your concerns at ease.

HERE is an interesting article on documentary photography and how it's sub-genres are defined and pursued by photographers. It may be helpful to you.

For Sara-Lane: Dhanraj Emanuel - FINALLY!

So, Dhnraj finally responded to my requests, and I have some images for you! These aren't exactly the ones I was thinking of. In these he seems to have posed the other subjects of the photo rather than just letting them do whatever they want, but they are in the same series. They all show his discomfort in each of these situations. His is a cultural alienation rather than an alienation that comes from being shoved into the "adult" world, but your approach reminds me so much of his:

For Sara-Lane: Diane Arbus

I'm still working on getting in touch with Dhanraj Emanuel. I have a couple of messages and e-mails out there awaiting his reply. Until then, I thought the some of the work of Diane Arbus might appeal to you:

For Caroline: Denis Darzacq

Croline, this may not be perfectly related to what you're planning for your first assignment, but if you haven't seen the gravity-defying photography of Denis Darzacq yet, you should check him out. I think this guy would be right up your alley:

For Allison: Nancy Burson & Jenny Saville

Allison, Nancy Burson is the photographer that immediately comes to my mind when I think of the concept and type of photographs you are talking about wanting to do for the first assignment. Take a look at her use of contemporary portraiture (and, in some cases, digital manipulation of a portrait) to make a statement about the ways the we view/judge/objectify/racially profile women:

Jenny Saville is a bit less relevant to what you are specifically wanting to do with this series, but your ideas made me think of her, as well. Generally, Saville is a painter, but she has also done some photographic work lately. All of it explores the how women are made to feel about themselves and their bodies:

Some Artist's Statement Examples

Below is a collection of good artist statements I have come across. Notice how some are very general statements that deal with concept alone (what the artist is interested in and what he/she wants to communicate) and others are about specific bodies of work. In most of the statements that deal with a particular body of work, you'll notice that there is still a discussion of concept first, followed by a discussion of how the work communicates that concept:

Jennifer Barnett-Hensel

My work explores issues of memory, time, and the effects of both on one’s Being through the guise of painting, drawing, and installation. With these media, I channel my life experiences as well as the experiences of others to create works of art. My drawn lines and abstracted forms become my visual representations of conversations and feelings. My artwork re-presents the unseen presence that feelings pose onto actual place. By capturing these emotions in works of art they become infused in time and space; not to become stagnant, but instead, to act as a reminder of what has happened in the past. These moments become pathways for understanding the connections we share as humans with each other and with the natural world that surrounds us.

Dwayne Butcher

I am Dwayne Butcher, Memphis' Own, an artist living and working in Memphis, TN. I work on a variety of media: paintings, sculptures, installation, time-based digital paintings, digital videos and spoken word performances.

My work offers a glimpse into the routine of an overweight, heavily accented, beer drinking redneck with a chicken wing and knee-high sock fetish. I have high art aspirations, but do not really know what that means. So, I find myself trying to dress like a hipster, when generally I only wear snapped shirt western wear and cowboy boots, unless, of course, I am having lunch at the Country Club. In which case, I have two nice jackets to choose from. I am a jack-of-all-trades, mover of all things too heavy for normal people, and thinking about getting my first tattoo.

Michael Aldana

The Erosion Series

Recently my art works have been attempts to grapple with the issue of coastal erosion in South Louisiana. Louisiana is losing land at a rate of a football field every 35 minutes. This is primarily due to the erosion happening along the coast as oil and gas companies have dug canals in their exploration of this oil rich region. The salt water moves in the manmade canals and destroys the wetlands further inland, causing vegetation to die, and in turn, causing the land to erode. Before Katrina, I hadn’t thought much about the prospects of losing the land and the culture with which I grew up. After being a part of Katrina and her aftermath, I see just how serious the issue is, and my work since has been aimed at bringing Louisiana’s plight to light.

My art is a way for me to express what is happening as the erosion process threatens Louisiana. I look back, in my art, at a past that has vanished or is currently in the process of vanishing. I reference landmarks or landscapes mixed with personal experiences of my youth as reminders of what was, juxtaposed with landscapes of wetlands or canals that are the current cause of the problem. In the works, I layer in images, sand them away, layer new images and often create a space that confounds normal scale and perspective as an attempt to relay the chaos that is facing this region and as an attempt to search for some personal sense out of it all. In the process of making these pieces I contort the composition and reorganize reality with a conglomeration of images. I see these as a reorganization and reclamation of space. It is an effort, at least in art form, to take back the lands, industries, lexicons and places I used to know that are disappearing, and reclaiming them as new spaces. It is a personal way to look at what is being lost due to the problem of erosion and reinventing a space where the past comes back to life and affronts the land loss. There are other portions of this series where I focus on one place, person or thing that is vanishing, leaving or no longer exists, as a meditational homage. Painting a crawfish hole or a bridge becomes more than painting a crawfish hole or a bridge, it becomes a deeper thought process into family, loss, and an uncertain future. The work becomes a reconnection to the past and a way to deal with the immense issues facing Louisiana, and in particular, New Orleans.

Elisa Paloschi

Faces and Places

I use photography as a means of self-expression – I make pictures for myself, to identify with hidden qualities of my character, to better understand my reality, and to express my interpretation of the world around me. A clearer understanding of myself and of my world allow me to explore fragments of life as an abstract form, and also to interact with people I would otherwise not be able to engage with. My goal is to use my camera like Alice’s rabbit hole, to open an unexplored world, a place of curious self-expression, but also a world of new relationships, new chances new beginnings and most importantly new stories.

My choice of subject comes from a place of intuition and is fuelled by an impetuous desire to partake in the stories that unfold around me. I seek the unknown and I look for the light within the shadows, the stories that are not at first obvious and the uncommon in the common. I photograph people in their environments because I am curious of what lays behind their eyes, where they have been and where they hope to go. My photography evokes the passage of time. I use slow shutter speeds and double exposures to explore the nuances of movement and the modulation of time as it passes from past to present to future. Recently I have begun to work with landscapes, attempting to illustrate abstract, evocative scenery as a motif to epitomize the idea of imagined space, a reminder that what I create through the viewfinder is only real to me.

I am inspired to compose by the contrast of light and dark, while I use the changing light of day to arouse the mood of my dreams. Strangely, colour has appeared in my work, slowly and without intention, concealing the black and white imagery of my past. This colour conjures images of my favourite foods – mangoes, chocolate and spicy masala chai, and surprises me. Gone with the black and white is my concerned with documenting a story, rather I find myself interested in the results of immersing myself in the story and recording my own reactions and actions to my world. The photographs of Faces and Places come from that immersion.

Jerry Takigawa

We live in an information-rich yet time-poor culture. I see a society that is becoming more and more disconnected from nature, disconnected from natural rhythms, cycles, and seasons. Often, this is manifested by being disconnected from our own selves.

Fascinated with the concept of time, I have been seeking to understand the feeling that time is “speeding up.” Theories abound to address the issue. This exploration led me to revisit the concept of no time—it means no mind. Eastern philosophies profess that the present moment is the only “reality” and that past and future are an illusion. Being in the present becomes an antidote to the sensation of “accelerating” time.

To create these photographs, I gather objects of personal meaning and work in the moment, responding to what feels right. These images rely on an emotional response in order to be understood. That involves the non-thinking process of presence. Presence is what is needed to become aware of beauty and sacredness in nature. This is an intuitive response. To understand presence is simply to be present. Photography is one way that I am able to experience the moment, suspend time and re-connect with being. With this work, it’s my hope to create an intimate conversation that takes the viewer to a place of quiet contemplation.

A Short Artist's Statement

Below is a short artist's statement for a series of paintings I did. Here you'll see an example of a statement that is talking purely about the concept--the ideas I wanted to express with the work--rather than the specifics of the work itself:

You can click HERE for a gallery of images of the paintings.

BRANDED

For many years I refused to own a print T-shirt. This was during college, and I had an “anti-cool” thing going at the time; expending entirely too much effort trying to ensure that nothing on or around me made it appear as though I was following some new trend of the masses. It was my futile attempt not to associate myself with anything but “me.” Some time between that point and this one, things changed—I changed—and an overwhelming percentage of the shirts in my closet now have some sort of screen-printed logo on them. What is it about these images—logos produced by some corporate machine outside of myself—that draws me toward them so much that I am willing to “brand” myself, to don these images and project them back onto the world as a reflection of who and what I believe myself to be? My series of acrylic paintings, Branded, explores this fascination.

My Own Artist's Statement

Below is the artist's statement that accompanied my MFA thesis work in 2008. I've also included the videos that the statement outlines, so you can see the connections between the written statement and the actual work:

VIDEO SELF-PORTRAITS

My works in the MFA thesis exhibition Three Way express my concern with the external, variable, transitory, reciprocal, cyclical nature of “self” as an ongoing happening, and my grappling with the nature of my “self” as a mean between the two extremes of the binary phrase “me and everything separate from me.” The work consists of four videos: Conversations With A Wok, Robert’s Land, Margie, and West Carroll County. I refer to the works in this series as “video self-portraits,” though they do not initially conform to the traditional conventions of self-portraiture. They are, however, a very personal exploration of how my own particular “self” or “I” has participated in an ongoing external exchange of experience. I view existence as operating within a constant state of becoming rather than within human-imposed binaries of language (new and old, now and then, you and I, etc.). Therefore, I see this process of the “self” happening in a loop of experience as applicable to everyone—not just to me.

Each of the four video self-portraits included in the exhibition is approximately eight minutes in length, and in chronological order by production date, playing in a continual loop. A particular structure is adhered to throughout the series: each video has an audio element which is a recording of my voice telling an autobiographical story overlaid on a video element that consists of one single, stationary shot viewed in real time, without editing cuts (with the exception of Conversations with a Wok, which has occasional cross-dissolves). Additionally, ambient sounds recorded at the shooting location are used as presence tracks and, at specific moments, as an element of the narration itself. Two senses of time function in each piece: the slower, more meditative time of the stationary visual, and the more traditional narrative cadence of the story. The spoken text in each work recounts a memory, or a tangled weave of related memories, and the accompanying image displays an object, combination of objects, or place that holds some particular significance to me. I am incapable of looking at this object or particular feature of a place without thinking of all of the myriad symbol and representational connections with which my “I” has signified the object or location and the manner in which it projects back onto me. These connections are narrated by the video’s text.

In these works, I find my “self” “conjured” by the relationship—the dialogue—between image and spoken text. The liminal space that connects these elements, that un-locatable happening, is central to each piece and yet does not exist until the moment that image and text come together. Like James Elkins, I have abandoned “the words ‘the observer’ and . . . taken up residence in the verb ‘looks,’ literally between the words ‘object’ and ‘observer’.”