Back with a Vengence

Just when you thought it was safe, returning home from Long Island has filled my little pea brain with lots of dialogue about art. One of the exercisies my classes are requied to do is to turn visual into verbal by selecting five words that describe creativity...they then trade a word with another member from their table. The homework assignment is to create from these words a cogent statement on creatvity. It is simply my way of getting them in the habit of writing artist statement.
For me artist statements are supposed to be about the art; not the artist...that is where bio and resume come in. In my early years, I was luck enough to study with Shigeko Spear, an incredible fiber artist. One of the many things she taught me was this simple statement: "If you have to talk too much about the work, there is something work with the work. If you cannot speak about your work at all, there is something wrong with you."
So I thought I would take that simple statement and analysize it a little. When artist statements are bigger than the work itself, the artist is having to verbalize too much to inform the viewer. In other words, the work doesn't have its own voice.....so we are giving it one with ten dollar words.
On the other hand, if you can't speak to the work at all, there are several possibilities:
1. Maybe you are unsure of the direction of the work.
2. Maybe you just cranked it out to get something done, so it holds no true meaning for you.
3. Or maybe on a more positive note, you feel so deeply about the piece that you have't found the way in which to convey that to the viewer.

Either way we need to consider that no one cares what techniques are used in the artist statement. These are usually on a little card under the title...if they are even important. What a viewer is interested in is the inspiration for the piece or the feeling you had during the process of making the piece.

So give this little exercise a try a see what happens...of course, you won't have anyone to trade with but you might pick up an art book and find a word that sparks your other five. Remember in all work, verbal or visual, simplicity is elegance.....and my mantra for this year (and maybe longer) is to say more by doing less.
Quiltmaking for me is an opulent media but there can be an elegant simlplicity in the design. Don't you often find that the more you add the more unclear the imagery becomes (Paula Nadelstern, aside). We don't have to use every beautiful fabric we own in one quilt to achieve the goal we have set......nor do we have to design the heck out of every image we choose. Yet, with these factors in mind, fabric is a warm media that is opulent by its very nature.
Bet you wish I had stayed gone longer.....back to the studio.