I've been posting a lot of pictures lately so you can see I've been busy churning out new inventory and adding it to the Website, but I thought it might be time for an actual blog entry ;-)
There's been a lot of discussion lately on jewelry artist message board community that I belong to about "artist's statements." What are they? Should everyone have one or are they pretentious and to be avoided like the plague?
General definition is that an "artist statement" is sort of like a "mission statement" for a company or an overall guiding philosophy. Although some people look at it more as a place to post their artistic resume or more specific descriptions of what inspired particular pieces.
I haven't put one up on my site at this time because I'm not sure I have an overall guiding philosophy that I work under as I create my jewelry. I'm more of a "this appeals to me TODAY so I'll do it" person. Plus, I do think it can have the tendency to slip over into pretentiousness.
Honestly, how do you KNOW the public is interested in what's in your head, your pet causes and peeves, etc. Maybe they just liked one thing you did, thought it was cool, bought it and that's the end of it? That's one reason I like using the Blog to communicate with my clientele. Anyone who's interested can click the "Blog" link on my site and come here to read. If they're not interested, then they don't have to click.
On the other hand (can you tell yet that I'm a Gemini and therefore have to always argue both sides of any issue? LOL) I personally like it when I have some type of clue what went into a particular piece by an artist. I think it's interesting how real life events and issues can get translated through an artist's brain into their work. The way I handle that for my own customers is in the written description of each item on my site...I try to give some little tidbit of information of what I was thinking of at the time, or what the bead colors remind me of, or why I gave it the strange name, etc. Sometimes knowing a bit more about a piece can help a customer make more of an emotional connection with it.
So for now, I'll keep up with my little item descriptions (which I hope people enjoy) and save my bio for my real-life resume. And as for an "artist's statement"...I guess the closest I can come to describing my style is "Whatever floats your boat!"
Take care all!
KJ
P.S. New items up on the site today - earrings accented w/ amethyst tear drops and an unusual Thai silver pendant accented with chrysoprase and citrine...yummmy! Is summer here yet? See it all at http://www.silverparrotdesigns.net
1 comment:
For what it's worth, I think you should have an about me page that gives a little bit of background and a sort of artist's statement. I always look for those, and some people will be intimidated by your blog. It's totally goofy writing it, though. I keep changing mine. Anyway. Have a good weekend. :)
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