"If I could say it in words there would be no reason to paint" -Edward Hopper
" An artist cannot talk about his art more than a plant can discuss horticulture" -Jean Cocteau
Have you ever been to an art exhibit and seen a mysterious, beautiful and clever piece of art? Wanting to know more about the intention of the artist you started reading the artist statement only to find yourself more puzzled and slightly put off by the overly sophisticated language, complicated sentences and annoyingly confusing paragraph?
My guess is that more often than not artists have no clue why they create the art they create.
They only know that they are naturally compelled to paint or draw or take pictures but trying to explain why seems completely unnatural. Check out this hilarious video, it clearly demonstrates what we are going through when writing the dreaded artist statement:
Very interesting!
Posted by: Irit Elazar Cohen | Sunday, 06 November 2011 at 11:26 AM
I'm glad you like it Irit. Hope to see you around.
Posted by: Isabelle Bryer | Monday, 07 November 2011 at 12:11 PM
Hilarious. Of course we are always trying to say what people want to hear. Let's all agree to try and stop that. Why did I paint that? I painted it because it gave me pleasure.
I also painted it in hopes that someone else will enjoy it and trade me some of their money for it. In a nutshell, "I like it. Do you? Okay, do you like it enough to buy it?"
Posted by: Jesse | Monday, 09 April 2012 at 09:22 AM
Okay then, I agree with you Jesse. We will just tell the truth about why we paint what we paint. Anyway I suck at lying and embarrass myself even more so what's the point?
Posted by: Isabelle Bryer | Monday, 09 April 2012 at 04:39 PM
Hello! Have you ever experienced a situation when someone has stolen any of your articles? Many thanks in advance for your reply.
Posted by: FunkyForLife | Monday, 17 December 2012 at 02:33 AM
No FFL, as far as I know no one ever stole one of my post...
Posted by: Isabelle | Monday, 17 December 2012 at 02:34 PM