More to come...

I have been meaning to post this for awhile, sorry for the delay between updates!

This is more or less just a teaser post to let you know what is to come as well as to act as a guide or map for my future entries. Before the semester is up, I hope to post at LEAST three more entries about writing about art!

The first thing you can look forward to (I hope) is one or two entries about the artist Eva Hesse. I will use her work to illustrate how an artist can write about one body of work to be published in a gallery guide or an advertisement for a show. This is just one reason why someone would write about their art, and I hope to show you an example of Hesse's work and writing. I'm choosing her because she has a really great statement for a show she had, and I also want to tell you about her artwork and her life, because she has an amazing and unbelievable story. Her artwork and statement has a lot to do with my own work and my artist statement, so I want to share her story with you.

Another entry I plan on writing has to do with my personal frustration with "untitled" in the art world and the importance of titling artwork. I believe that if you are to leave something untitled you should have a very good reason for doing so, and that in fact every decision you make about your artwork should be a conscious one: there should be no circumstance for you to say "Well, I never really thought of that..." when you are writing about your art work. Part of what makes us artists is our audiences, and we have to consider everything when it comes to making our work available to the public, even titling. I will introduce you to another artist to illustrate my point, Steve Locke, whose painting titles really make you think about the meaning of the work. His website also has some really great examples of artist statements, too!

Lastly, I plan on posting my own artist statement, tell you why I wrote it, and talk a little bit about what people might want to know if they are looking at my artwork. Both what I want to reveal to my audience and what I want to remain mysterious go into writing my statements. This reminds me of a piece by Bruce Nauman, called "The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths," which is shown in the picture in this post. I got the image from the website for the television series "Art 21", another great resource for learning about contemporary artists, their work, biographies, interviews, essays, and much more: http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/nauman/card1.html