Feeling lost?
It’s sometimes confusing navigating the different pieces of writing that go into your professional dossier. This article explains what each piece is, its purpose, and gives you some resources for you to pursue on your own..
Here’s a quick overview:
Bio – The bio is about you, written in the third person. Just the facts ma’am. Date and place of birth, education, your medium, key accomplishments such as awards or key exhibitions.
Artist Statement – While the bio is about you, the artist statement is about you in relation to your work. This gets to the how and why.
My Story – The ‘My Story’ piece is a lengthier and more personal version of your bio that gives your audience insights into how your life has shaped your artistic journey.
Resume – Your resume is a list of your exhibitions and awards presented in a specific format.
The Finer Points
Bio – Your bio is designed to give basic information, It’s often described as dry, and it’s really ok for it to be just that since it’s designed to be your life at a glance. If it runs too long or goes off point it confuses the reader. That doesn’t mean that it can’t be infused with language that makes it more pleasurable reading. Avoid at all costs florid language or self praise. It’s one thing for someone else to call your work charming but another for you to call your own work charming. Even though the bio is written in the third person, everyone knows you wrote (or approved) it. Usually praise and compliments don’t belong in any component of your dossier. Leave that to a testimonial page or articles/reviews others have written about you that you can feature on your website. If your language is strong and clear you’ll get your points across much better.
P.S. Noting your accomplishments honestly or stating positive facts about yourself is not self praise.
Artist Statement – The artist statement is trickier to write than any other component of your dossier. It gets to the heart and soul of who you are as an artist – what you think, what draws you to your work and what makes you create the things you do. In other words, the big Why.
Ask any artist point blank why they do what they do and unless they have sussed that out clearly in writing or have clarified it in their own mind, chances are they may be hard pressed to come up with an answer. People have all sorts of different emotions and motivations that are native to their psyches. Sometimes it seems so obvious what a body of work is about that it feels absurd to have to spell it out for the viewer. Well guess what? People aren’t mind readers and don’t naturally get it. You have to help them, whether your audience is a collector, curator or gallerist.
The artist statement helps put your work in perspective and can include information like:
what kind of art you create
concepts you are exploring with your art
influences
your media
My Story – This is a useful tool that lets you speak a little more at length than you do in your Bio and allows you to write in the first person. Not to be confused with an autobiography, which tells your entire life story, think of this piece more like a memoir, which includes only life experience that pertains to your art. This can include people or travels that inspired you, challenges you faced and overcame, and any experience that has shaped you as an artist. While it’s longer than the bio, keep it pertinent and choose the best highlights to build a story arc. Keep it under two pages. If it’s too long it will intimidate or overwhelm your reader before he or she even begins to read it.
This piece is optional. It works nicely on a website and in some cases when you want to introduce yourself to an individual, for example a curator or gallerist.
Resume – Some people use the resume as their bio. This gives absolutely no insight into your personal history, because basically all it is is a list of exhibitions and achievements in reverse chronological order starting with solo exhibitions, and moving through selected group exhibitions, achievements, articles in which your work appears, collections, commissions, education and professional memberships.
When you’re starting out you may not yet have participated in exhibitions. In this case, include a short bio, your education including workshops and coursework, your website and contact information. When you start putting your work out there in earnest your resume will quickly grow.
How and where to use:
Your dossier should include all of these pieces with the exception of the ‘My Story’, which is optional. Your website should have a link to these in pdf form. Use all of them at will except if submission guidelines require only specific pieces. Always follow directions.
Note!
As you are a living, breathing artist, so your documents are as well. Your bio is the most static of these but you may have reason for small tweaks as you move forward in your career. Since your art will develop, mature and perhaps change direction, your artist statement must grow with you. If you are working on several bodies of work, each needs its own statement. Keeping up with your resume as experience grows makes it easier to keep track of and as your stature escalates, you can weed out the lesser exhibitions.
Resources
The Internet is full of resources. You can search for samples of all of the above. While conflicting information exists as to the details, it’s important to understand the purpose of each piece so you can feel free to deviate from the rules as long as you don’t deviate from the purpose of each piece.
Some books that touch on these and other aspects of your art career are:
Writing the Artist Statement by Ariane Goodwin
How to Survive and Prosper as an Artist, Selling Your Work Without Selling Your Soul by Caroll Michels
I’d Rather be in the Studio: The Artist’s No Excuse Guide to Self Promotion by Alyson Stanfield
If you have questions, you can leave them in the comments, or contact me to talk about your writing or editing needs.
Recent Comments