"Hey, by the way, I am a fan of you! I was looking at your website and I like what I see. The way you describe your work and what it means to you is really well put together. Most of all, what gets to me at my core is the way you talk about beauty, hidden beauty. There is something I get on a deep level. It is there in your jewelry pieces and it is there in your aura, as well."
I just got this note from friend who is a very spiritual person, and I like him a lot. He's a powerful person, but quiet and I appreciate the level of introspection that he has given to his life. His note has let me know that the artist's statement of why I do what I do has some meaning. It may not make sense to everyone, but at least makes sense to someone.
The statement came out of a lot of self-examination. I could have gone on about pretty rock and loving colour, which I did for awhile, but for myself to truly know why I do this, I had to look at myself.
The past ten years have contained some of the best and worst of what has happened in my life, severe depression cycles, wonderful up times, end of a marriage and meeting and marrying one person who loves to loves me as I am. Getting instant family, giving up a business, and starting another. Mourning losses and finding myself. Gaining weight, then loosing it, keeping it off. Getting older, getting wiser. Being shy and learning to act so that no one needs to know. Closing up, closing myself off, isolating, and deciding that that is not the right path. Opening up, making the decision to connect. Reconnecting with old friends and making new friends, meeting people, jumping out of my comfort zone. Trying new foods, going places, getting dressed up, getting out. Finding out that I am beautiful, not in the fashion magazine sense of the word, but in my own very unique, individual way. Beautiful, when I let myself love and share and talk and show my inner nature.
So in response to my friend: ... thank you. I am truly honoured that you are a fan.
The whole thing of beauty, and inner beauty especially, stems from 'ugly duckling' issues. I suspect that even the most physically beautiful people have them too. On the technical side, gems are graded for their beauty and the realization is that none are perfect. There are invisible to the naked eye flaws, discolourations, problems with size or cut. A physically beautiful gem stone may have been chemically treated in some way to give it the appearance of perfection, but inside, under a microscope, it is a mass of fractures. An ordinary rock that on the outside looks worn, cracked, uneven, ugly, can have the most beautiful natural crystals or colours or patterns. This is humanity and unfortunately we rarely allow ourselves to get close enough to others to find their inner beauty and more importantly, we rarely spend the time on ourselves to realize that we are beautiful. Discovering that we are is a remarkable thing.
I am very happy you that you are reaching new levels in your meditations. You are a beautiful person and it only adds to your quiet power.
Talk soon, stay well.
Cheers,
Cynthia
--
It is through art, and through art only, that we can realize our perfection.. - Oscar Wilde
Showing posts with label artist statement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label artist statement. Show all posts
Monday, October 26, 2009
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Revised Artist Statement
Recently ran across this web link from Concordia University's Fine Arts program: http://caps.concordia.ca/forstudents/advice/fa/statement.php
It links to great example of a nice brief statement and instead of the behemoth technical statement that we have been using for a couple of years, it is time to take said behemoth and condense it down to a nice tight thought, which of course makes me think of the Seth Godin quote "If you can't state your position in eight words or less, you don't have a position." When applied to fine craft/art it makes me feel that if we can't say "why" in a few short words, we really don't have a clue why we do this.
As I've explored before in a previous post titled "WHY" getting to the real reason behind the creating is a challenge and is often one of denial and superficial reasons.
In going back to that post and excerpting certain points and following the illustration in the Concordia link I've developed that following more succinct statement:
Our crafting of jewellery is a pursuit of excellence, an adventure in boldness and an exploration of the hidden beauty in our world.
The desire to create and create with excellence is a result of our personal life journeys and our decision to move past years of meeting mediocrity, staying the wallflower, and denying our desire to craft. This absolute decision drives this competition within ourselves for attempting to attain excellence and boldness in each creation.
Through our stone cutting we find a richness of colour and pattern that has been trapped in basaltic formations for millions of years. It is released from this snare annually to be discovered when we are the adventurous rock-hounds in search of treasure in the ordinary. Cutting and setting these stones that we collect is a gratifying way of sharing this previously hidden beauty with the viewer.
Like the stones, each of us hides and protects some of our inner beauty from the everyday world. The bold jewellery that we craft using these stones are amulets of strength and confidence that draw attention and show the wearer as an extraordinary person in pursuit of their own adventure.
Be bold, be excellent, join the adventure. (might make a good tag line)
I think that I'm warming up to this more honest statement....
It links to great example of a nice brief statement and instead of the behemoth technical statement that we have been using for a couple of years, it is time to take said behemoth and condense it down to a nice tight thought, which of course makes me think of the Seth Godin quote "If you can't state your position in eight words or less, you don't have a position." When applied to fine craft/art it makes me feel that if we can't say "why" in a few short words, we really don't have a clue why we do this.
As I've explored before in a previous post titled "WHY" getting to the real reason behind the creating is a challenge and is often one of denial and superficial reasons.
In going back to that post and excerpting certain points and following the illustration in the Concordia link I've developed that following more succinct statement:
Our crafting of jewellery is a pursuit of excellence, an adventure in boldness and an exploration of the hidden beauty in our world.
The desire to create and create with excellence is a result of our personal life journeys and our decision to move past years of meeting mediocrity, staying the wallflower, and denying our desire to craft. This absolute decision drives this competition within ourselves for attempting to attain excellence and boldness in each creation.
Through our stone cutting we find a richness of colour and pattern that has been trapped in basaltic formations for millions of years. It is released from this snare annually to be discovered when we are the adventurous rock-hounds in search of treasure in the ordinary. Cutting and setting these stones that we collect is a gratifying way of sharing this previously hidden beauty with the viewer.
Like the stones, each of us hides and protects some of our inner beauty from the everyday world. The bold jewellery that we craft using these stones are amulets of strength and confidence that draw attention and show the wearer as an extraordinary person in pursuit of their own adventure.
Be bold, be excellent, join the adventure. (might make a good tag line)
I think that I'm warming up to this more honest statement....
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
It's Application Season Again
I hate application season!
...and I totally love it too, because it is exciting to try to write something that sells yourself to a jury without setting off their BS sensors.
The deadline for the next big show that we regularly apply for is August 13 and since there is always a lot of competition in the jewelry catagory the pictures have to be great (not just good or ok but great) and the text that accompanies each application has to be truthful and interesting and compelling.
That can be a challenge when sometimes the most interesting thing that pops to mind when asked to say something interesting about myself is "I make jewelry". Whoopee, & so what, so do a lot of other folks and just what is it that makes you so special?
...and that is the part that I hate.
Fortunately the process has changed a bit for this year, it is simpler. They no longer want a CV, a seperate bio, an artist's statement, and press coverage to go with the step-by-step how do you do your thing documents. This will save me a lot of paper, but not as much as it will some others I am sure.
This year they want a product price list with step-by step description of the process and to tell them who else in involved in the creation and how. To get cheeky, I wonder if I should give credit to a supreme being for making the pretty rock that we use? And they want a Biography where we tell them about our education and training and where we have shown & sold our work and then they still want to know about us. Isn't knowing all the rest of it enough? Do they really need to know that I own 2 cats, am occasionally neurotic, a bit paranoid and periodically bounce between a need for immense social contact and the desire to be left alone to 'concentrate' for hours on end? And that my partner borders on manic bursts of energy that propell him through projects that last for 48 hours straight? Or do they just want to know why we make art?
I don't know because sometimes I get caught up in trying to figure out what I am really being asked for.
The problem with artist statements and biographies is that some of the ones I have read are TMI!! Really too much information. I like to know the artist. I like to know what makes them make art, I get uncomfortable when I find out that they are in the middle of a huge family free-for-all because grandma left her diamonds to her other daughter-in-law, or that they paint real private-parts as an after hours kink, or that they collect toe-nail clippings...
So in taking the time to write this I have concluded that they really don't want to know the literal us, they want to the know the figurative us, the pretty part of us that makes one of a kind jewelry, they want to know the why behind the how.
And we are back to the Why question. Why do we do this? Excellence and the need to achieve. Guess I better go add that to the bio page.
Wishing myself luck with this application,
Cynthia
...and I totally love it too, because it is exciting to try to write something that sells yourself to a jury without setting off their BS sensors.
The deadline for the next big show that we regularly apply for is August 13 and since there is always a lot of competition in the jewelry catagory the pictures have to be great (not just good or ok but great) and the text that accompanies each application has to be truthful and interesting and compelling.
That can be a challenge when sometimes the most interesting thing that pops to mind when asked to say something interesting about myself is "I make jewelry". Whoopee, & so what, so do a lot of other folks and just what is it that makes you so special?
...and that is the part that I hate.
Fortunately the process has changed a bit for this year, it is simpler. They no longer want a CV, a seperate bio, an artist's statement, and press coverage to go with the step-by-step how do you do your thing documents. This will save me a lot of paper, but not as much as it will some others I am sure.
This year they want a product price list with step-by step description of the process and to tell them who else in involved in the creation and how. To get cheeky, I wonder if I should give credit to a supreme being for making the pretty rock that we use? And they want a Biography where we tell them about our education and training and where we have shown & sold our work and then they still want to know about us. Isn't knowing all the rest of it enough? Do they really need to know that I own 2 cats, am occasionally neurotic, a bit paranoid and periodically bounce between a need for immense social contact and the desire to be left alone to 'concentrate' for hours on end? And that my partner borders on manic bursts of energy that propell him through projects that last for 48 hours straight? Or do they just want to know why we make art?
I don't know because sometimes I get caught up in trying to figure out what I am really being asked for.
The problem with artist statements and biographies is that some of the ones I have read are TMI!! Really too much information. I like to know the artist. I like to know what makes them make art, I get uncomfortable when I find out that they are in the middle of a huge family free-for-all because grandma left her diamonds to her other daughter-in-law, or that they paint real private-parts as an after hours kink, or that they collect toe-nail clippings...
So in taking the time to write this I have concluded that they really don't want to know the literal us, they want to the know the figurative us, the pretty part of us that makes one of a kind jewelry, they want to know the why behind the how.
And we are back to the Why question. Why do we do this? Excellence and the need to achieve. Guess I better go add that to the bio page.
Wishing myself luck with this application,
Cynthia
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