Ok, I think I may have a better one that what I posted earlier. I kept some of the same parts, but I think there may have been a disconnect, so I hope I've tied things together better with this one. Again, I'd appreciate any thoughts/feedback/suggestions.
I am a child, sitting in church on a Sunday morning with my parents, lost in the beauty of the stained glass windows there, some dating back to the mid to late 1800s. There are figures, flowers, decorative accents; rich colors of blue, gold, green, and red….oh how I love the red. The sunlight begins to emerge from the clouds and the light comes through these windows bringing them to life! Brilliant colors of light radiate from the figures in these windows. I wonder who chose the patterns, the colors? Who created the graceful outlines for the glass pieces? Who painted the details of the faces, their flowing robes? How was it possible to do this?
Nature. The trees.........The mountains...........The flowers
Sky. The sun.........The clouds..........The stars
These elements are the driving forces in my work.
As an only child my imagination created wonderful fantasy worlds. One of my favorite pastimes on a warm summer day was lying in a soft blanket of grass, looking up at the slow moving clouds as they drifted across the sky. I searched for shapes in those big fluffy clouds, finding the most unusual collection of things. Admit it, we all did that, right?
Today, my imagination still finds those shapes, only now I find them in glass. My work is inspired by nature, realized in glass.
The Light........Refractions.............Reflections...........Prisms
I am a glass artist.
7 comments:
"My work is inspired by nature, realized in glass."
This is a perfect sentence!
Love it. Perfect. You really painted a picture of who you are and what your art is in relation to your life.
I will be honest with you, because I trust that you know it's coming from a constructive place: I like the first one better. I mean, I really like in the first one how you're able to sum so much up with so few words. In fact, I thought it was kind of daring to use fragments, single words, not whole sentences. This intrigued me as a reader. I wanted to keep reading.
In the second, it's not as easy to read (simply because there is more of it), it's not as quick, and I think an artist's statement should be as absolutely succinct as possible. We should try to get rid of anything that duplicates. For me, as a reader, I want the essence. That's it.
I hope that helps? let me know what you think.
All that said, now I have to get my a** in gear and work on mine!
Tracey - Thank you. I do like that sentence a lot.
Thanks Karen. Yes, I think it needs to be as succinct as possible. I was wondering if a had any disconnects.
I think I will use the revised paragraph about my imagination and clouds from the second. I was trying to create imagery from what I saw in stained glass as a child.
I've struggled with producing Artist Statements and the one on my web page just doesn't cut it anymore.
Thanks so much for the feedback. I'm feeling great about revising this. :)
Hi Kathleen:)
This is a hard call for me. I agree that the revised one is a bit too long, but I do love how you've pulled me into your stained glass church experience. I also love the quote that Tracey pointed out and I love the final statement of "I am a glass artist".
And let me tell you... your work is gorgeous!!
Shay
I like the simplicity & flow of the first. Like Tracey, I think that sentence is perfect & beautiful. Made me stop. "My work is inspired by nature, realized in glass." What a beautiful statement all by itself.
I too, admit I liked the first one better. It cuts straight to the core of your depth. Love the single words and the imagery of the cloud formations. Also LOVE the last sentence (inspired by nature) and the "I am a glass artist." It made me pause and take a deep breath - felt like I knew you better.
Thank you, each and every one of you! I so appreciate that each of you took the time to comment and give me feed back. I am humbled and overwhelmed with gratitude.
I have put a revised artist statement on both websites (studio and my personal one). It's a merge of the two and I think I've kept it succinct. I may still work on incorporating my early love of stained glass...have to churn on that a bit.
Thank you everyone!
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