Artist’s Statement

Alcohol Ink Paintings

I thought that artist’s creations ‘speak for themselves’. And they likely ‘speak’ different things to different people. In some socially engaged art, artist’s message may be blatantly apparent; in other cases it is open for a range of emotional or intellectual reactions that shape its meaning. We don’t need to know verbatim what motivated the artist or what sublime messages were meant to be expressed, we are engulfed in our own emotional or rational interactions with the art.

Yet, it is very common, expected even, to have a verbal statement from the artist as an introduction, a prelude to the artwork being shown. I often find these ‘Artist’s Statements’ distracting from a truly personalized interaction with their art.  In some cases, however, they will shine a revealing and sincere light upon artists’ personal world and deepen our emotional connection with their art.

The titles given to the artwork are a more subtle substitute to the ‘artist’s statement’. I can’t shake off from my memory an utterly abstract painting by Joan Mitchell titled ‘George Went Swimming at Barnes Hole. But it Got Too Cold.‘

In assembling this collection of alcohol ink paintings for our up-coming flipbook, we decided to limit artist’s statements to one sentence only – makes us focus on what is truly important. Artists’ personal sensibilities are interwoven into and recognizable from their body of work, as well as from titles given to their paintings.

You can say a lot with only a few words – and colors….turns out, you can paint a poem.