This morning finds me attempting to write an artist statement. For those of you who don’t know, artist statements are used by artists to explain their body of work. Usually reserved for the “Fine art” genre. Sometimes it’s for a show, a series, or, in my case, a life time. And the explanations vary widely, some make sense and others are as ambiguous as the art.

My experience with Artist statements thus far has been a cynical one. A pompous selling tool. A glorified blurb in the likeness as a product description in a Sky-mall catalog. In my experience, it usually involves a vague description of what is actually being attempted strung together with overly eclectic vocabulary. The Artist statement is more vague than the art alone. Yet, seeing as I how keep trying to sell my illustration heavy art style in a fine art way, I have to play ball; and play ball I will.

What I will attempt to say will be more a social commentary in a biographical way. It’s a statement that I’ve been rolling in my head for months now. I won’t attempt to paraphrase it here. I’m still experimenting with how to say what I want to say. I have no idea on how to give you a tidbit without being ostentatiously nebulous . . . See! Weird words strung together weirdly. I’m already affected.

I need to make money. I hate to say it but I do. I have my reasons. None of them are greed. All of them are independence. I still plan to do that through art. If I relied on my day job to do it for me, it’d never ever happen. I am housed and I am fed and I’m due to be out of debt soon. I do not want to reinvest in a painful career and be trapped by a debt, namely school debts,  I won’t be able to pay off for decades. Thankfully, the one thing my penny-Annie job affords me is time.

I’ll have a year or so before the option of going back to school is affordable. Not even affordable, I will still have to resubmit myself to student loans to make it happen. Naturally, I am reluctant to do so. Even so, if I make another attempt at this art thing and it doesn’t happen . . . I shudder to think. I will despair on this topic later.

Back to crafting an artist statement I go. This blog post has been a rare one in which it gives me a clarity of thought and focus. Well, I will amend that to say, “A deeper focus” than my normal fare. I feel a particular appreciation for this post. A pride and satisfaction. Well done.