Describe your practice vs. Your artist statement

In this article we are going to discover the differences between “Describe your practice” and “Your artist statement”

Your artist statement must be in your voice.

If it’s not in your voice then it’s not going to work.

Your voice is unique to you.

There are many ableist and anti-neurodivergent workshops out there that will attempt to shame you into thinking your neurodivergent voice is wrong and needs to be erased or wiped out.

They will tell you that your vocabulary is wrong.

The way you use words are wrong and your tenses are wrong.

If you want to be grammatically correct, you can use a proof reader or access support to rewrite your artist statement for you. But, your voice should exhilarate the paragraph (see what I did there? I used a word neurotypical people would frown at… but a word that is exactly how I intended to use it!)

So how are all these access and art resources different to about 99% other art and access resources? Well, they are not encouraging you to overcome, change, or be rid of your neurodivergence.

Instead, they focus on helping you to access the necessary systems and structures in the arts but in a way that is empowering and autonomous for you as an artist.

So… without further ado (you’ll notice I do this a lot!) let’s continue.

I wrote one of the first blog posts on the artist statement but that was quite formal, now we’re going to play a little game.

1) What is your name?

2) Where did you study if you studied somewhere, if you didn’t, are you self- taught?

3) What inspires you (but try not to use the word inspires in the sentence… instead, focus on 3 things, objects, or themes etc that influence your work.

4) Your 3 favourite words when you look at your art practice.

5) 5 words or sentences that come up for you when you look at your art.

6) What is your art trying to tell you?

7) If your art could speak, what would be their biggest secret?

8) How would you like your art practice to make space for you or connect with you?

There are NO right answers by the way. There are only YOUR answers.

I will now show you an example:

1) What is your name?

Elinor Rowlands

2) Where did you study if you studied somewhere, if you didn’t, are you self- taught?

Goodness! Lots of places, but let’s keep to Aberystwyth University, Central St Martins and Roehampton University.

3) What inspires you (but try not to use the word inspires in the sentence… instead, focus on 3 things, objects, or themes etc that influence your work.

The sea, the switching or swaying of moods , deeply felt emotions/colours.

4) Your 3 favourite words when you look at your art practice.

Conjuring, movement, transcendence

5) 5 words or sentences that come up for you when you look at your art.

feminine gaze, dreamy world-building, emotively loud, trespassing over territories using my hands, textures

6) What is your art trying to tell you?

“It’s warm in here, won’t you come in and play a while.”

7) If your art could speak, what would be their biggest secret?

That it could hear you up in the sky and longed to speak back to you when you were four.

8) How would you like your art practice to make space for you or connect with you?

I would like for it to slow me down, and help me progress on my practice in time, to follow a series.

Now, I wouldn’t use the above for both Describe your Practice and your artist statement but what I’m trying to do is relieve you from the pressure to conform.

You don’t need to conform.

Don’t change your voice.

So, your artist statement is a brief introduction into your practice using your voice for example:

Sammy Hughes is a fine artist working in oils and soft pastels. She is fascinated by the way the light can transform landscapes just by how it reflects colour across the sky.

Hughes is a self-taught artist who begun in soft pastels and soon switched to using oil as she prefers its texture on canvas.

She is transformed each time she paints because she feels the magic brewing between the layers she uses upon her handmade canvases.

Each canvas is created using sustainable materials and she is committed to delivering high quality pieces to her clients. She rarely does commissions because she works to the light in the sky. Each landscape is unique and a document to the end of the day.

So this is an example of an Artist Statement - inside of it is the artist’s language and vocabulary, we get a sense of who she is and we feel present with her whilst she is painting. This is what you want from an artist statement.

For more support with Artist statements/Artist bios go to this blog post here.

Describe your practice

Now, Describe Your Practice is definitely more formal but it is also the first question you often find in a call out or a funding application.

You’ll want to begin here, get a pen and paper, or type in a word document/notes the answers to these questions:

1) What is your practice? (Choose as many as you want)

Visual artist

Painter, soft pastels, drawing, printing

Photographer

Video artist

Sound artist

Digital artist

Live Artist

Dancer

Performance artist

Performer

Actor

Movement artist

Text bast artist

Writer

Musician

etc. (I can list more but these are just examples)

2) How do you attend to your practice?

a) What kind of qualities/skills do you bring to your practice?

b) What are you trying to do?

c) What do you do?

3) Name the most recent projects or exhibitions you have worked on. (6 maximum - depending on word count)

• Always state if an exhibition was a group or solo one.

• Always put the title of the show, the curator name or company producing it, the location.

4) What is the purpose behind your work? (The raison d’etre) - The reason for being

Remember there are no right or wrong answers. Here’s an example (please note, everything written below is made up - the exhibitions do not actually exist in real life):

I am a documentary photographer and video artist. I use camera film as opposed to digital cameras in my practice and I am fascinated with the stories that the people I photograph bring to the table. The people I photograph are the ordinary, the everyday, the invisible. They are the people you pass on the street without a second glance. Yet, for me, it’s that exact reason that makes them so interesting. Their stories deserve to be told as do their portraits. I take photographs of my subjects coming out of the sea. The way their clothes stick to them brings an ethereal quality to their stories. My work poses the questions about place and refuge. This is why placing them in the sea and coming out of it is so pertinent to my practice.

Recent solo exhibitions include “How the light lies” at the World’s Photography Exhibition, curated by Day 4 Studios, in Poland and “Where the light lives” at Kingston Gallery, Brighton, UK.

My work brings people together in discussion, its quirkiness also asks important questions about displacement, refugees and how we are to welcome them to our shores.

I hope that this article though a little quirky, has shone a light on the differences between the two, and why it’s important to know the difference when applying for funding or to call outs, and when introducing audiences, clients and customers to your work.

If you would like some arts mentoring or require some support in your art-practice please find more information about me here