Writing a Bio and Artist Statement

Concerning writing a bio and artist statement, here is something to think about...

Your bio is about you and your artistic accomplishments. It is written in the third person (otherwise, it would be an autobiography). It helps to think of it as your résumé in paragraph form. Write it in reverse chronological order, acknowledging that your most important accomplishments are those that are most recent. I think it's nice to
open a bio with a short paragraph summarizing your current work. This can be taken from your statement and reworked for the bio format.

In contrast to your bio, which is about you, your statement is about your work--the current direction of your work, not the history of how you got to this point. It's your opportunity to define a body of work before others respond to the work and define it for you. Your statement--because it is a statement--is written in first person. It is not the definitive statement about your work forever and ever because your work changes. You must allow your statement to get better
and to grow along with your art. My litmus test for a good statement is that it makes me want to quit reading and look at the artist's work again. Otherwise, it's just a bunch of words.

Copyright 2007 Alyson B. Stanfield. Alyson takes the mystery out of marketing your art and making more money as an artist. Visit http://www.ArtBizCoach.com to get articles just like this one delivered to your inbox.