A pet peeve of mine is artist statements. So much importance given to them when one is writing applications for residencies and grants. There is pressure on artists to make their work sound profound and current and trendy and as a result many end up writing a lot of nonsense But is it really necessary with visual work to have these “high minded concepts” or can we just make work that is a response to our world and what we see and allow the viewer the space to come up with their own interpretation and emotions about the work? Some who have read my artist statement on this web page have wondered about it’s origins and so I wanted to explain that it emerged as my personal rebellion to the expected artist statement where the artist claims to be addressing these grand concepts. I wanted to create a statement that really captured what is going through my mind as I create.
On that note the struggle is real. Images of bombed destroyed buildings in Ukraine has me returning to crumbled tangled paper. I have this crumbled sheet of paper that was packing material and I have been struggling to capture it. I have done tight pencil drawings that somehow did not satisfy and fast ink drawings and wet washy watercolors and none of them have quite captured what I want. Today I feel like I finally made progress. The composition is not idea. But I definitely feel like I am on my way toward capturing the crumbled paper.
