Artist's Statement – What to Write?

I need to submit my Artist's Statement today that will be used in the exhibition at the New Brewery Arts called the Art of Childsplay that opens this Saturday the 23rd of July and I will have a selection of my work exhibited amongst other fantastic artists.

I’ve been trying to write my artist's statement now for a while. I’ve cut and pasted various sentences from different ‘about me’ sections of my website etc. but I don’t think I still got it right. What is an artist’s statement?

Am I suppose to state what I do and why I do it? Are readers interested in my background or more of how I created any particular object? Are people really reading all these in an exhibition?

Maybe the statements are like a good story: crab people's attention right at the beginning and maybe you have a chance them reading the whole story.

I suppose my trouble is that I still don’t consider my self as an artist and therefore I have never really looked at my work from an artist point of you. I’ve always thought of myself as a maker. Someone who creates by making something solid.

I very rarely sit down and think first as what I am about to make. In fact I never do that! I never think of a message that I am trying to convey to the others. I just simply make and I love it. I love the process of making. Call it fiddling, I can fiddle for hours without any reason at all! Is that good enough bases for an artist’s statement? Probably not....

Then there are the materials and colours, should I have a reason better than I just think the materials and colours work on my items?!
I haven’t been on a search for different techniques or materials. I haven’t tried to find anything new and ground braking. I just make things from what I like at the time.

Now having written all that down and have read it back I realized that it is not all true. I suppose I do think a bit as what I do. I chose to use the woollen fabrics because they are local and I love the quality of it all. I love going to the mill and see what they have, what wonderful ends of rolls they have pulled out this time.

I realized I often buy fabric because I like it not because it is for something particular. In fact the fabric often tells me what it want to be made into. For example, I bought bright yellow fabric not even liking yellow that much, but I just had to have it. I tried to think as what to do with it to justify the cost, but I couldn’t think anything at all. Of course I bought it feeling a little guilty, but then much later on the light bulb switched on and I exclaimed: “lions”. That is what the fabric will be used for!

I’ve also have fabric waiting to be made into a frog and another into a Kingfisher, but I haven’t got that far yet.

And when it comes to the Bears I simply go through my fabrics until I find something that crabs my attention on that day. After the Bear is made I think of the accessories. What would this Bear like to wear today....? And right in the end I name the Bear and that is when my work is done.

I suppose now I have to get all this into much shorter form....

Nearly finished...