The Artist Statement.......

.........is frankly an invention that makes me pause in question.   Did the Old Masters (a diverse and sundry group of talented humanity) possess Artist Statements?  I doubt it.   Painting and sculpture were crafts - one apprenticed into the field and.....one day, if you were good enough, the Church or other rich patron solicited your work as commission.   Admittedly I'm going by gut feel now, but I'd wager the Romantic age (the late 1700s) ushered in the age of the romance of fine art and that carried forth unto the Post Modern era.   Art exhibitions didn't come into play until the 18th and 19th centuries - at which point artists were seen as something more than mere craftsmen plying their trade.  And I suspect, slowly, the artist statement became necessary as art deviated away from realism.  No longer could the audience read the work without prompting.   As the world of fine art progresses, so does the level of pretense....and the ubiquitous artist statement. 

Perhaps I'm feeling a bit cynical, but I have to wonder at what I read in some statements.   One explanation is that the public will have questions about why you create what you do, why do you use a certain media or materials.  I suppose it's not enough to say "I do what I do because it's a compulsion and my materials are what I KNOW how to use to achieve what I want to do."  The Artist's Statement skirts the plain-speak for long paragraphs of pseudo-spiritualistic ramblings and attempts to convey a sense of reason for doing what one does....in other words, the statement attempts to sell something beyond what the viewer experiences in one's work.

whew...okay....I feel better now....