ARTIST STATEMENT GUIDELINES
This is the first part of your final project, and some of you have started working on it. In today’s class you will continue working on your Artist Statement, revising what you started (if you have started). We can conference and discuss in class. Explaining the rationale behind our actions and decisions is an important kind of reflective writing because it makes visible what is otherwise invisible. You can choose to write an e-mail in Comic Sans font, but unless you explain why, the choice may seem mysterious and odd to readers. Composers of all sorts often write an Artist’s Statement for their audience that explains their inspirations, intentions, and choices in their creative and critical processes. It helps the reader understand the process that led to the final product by providing insight into what the author set out to do, how they did it, and what they might do to further improve the piece.
In an Artist’s Statement, you step back and consider what you did and what you might have done differently and might do differently in the future. That’s what you’ll do in this reflection about the genre project you’ve just completed: the choices you made, why you made them, what happened, how you feel about it now. So for this 750-1000 word document, you’re going to create your own reflection about your project, and do it in a way that tells us what happened and when — the chronology of thought and actions that took you from your first ideas about it all the way to the completed project.
There are three sections in your Artist’s Statement:
- Before I began: Think back through everything you did – every choice you made and why – before you actually got to work on the genre project. Here are the things you need to talk about:
- Context: Give us the background for this project. Remind us how you became interested in the topic.
- Rhetorical Situation and Related Choices: Tell us the “why” of your project. What was your purpose for making this project? What audience did you want to direct this information to? Why that audience specifically? Where did you see your piece being shown or distributed to your audience? What appeals did you decide to use (which, of course, may have changed later): facts (logos), emotion (pathos), the credibility of you or someone you talk about (ethos)?
- Genre Considerations: Why did you chose the genre you did? What made you think that genre would be the best one for your audience? For example, if you did a brochure, what made a brochure the best way to get the information to your chosen audience — that is, you knew you had a place to distribute it so that seemed logical?
- Doing the project: Walk us chronologically through the process you went through to get it done: this then this then this… What went well? What didn’t go so well? What did you have to change and when? Did you throw out your original idea altogether, and if so, why? Who/where did you turn to for help? When did you panic (if you did) and what did you do about it?
- Now that it’s “done”: How do you think it turned out? Did you change the kinds of appeals or see them evolve as you went along (it happens)? Why? What, given all the time and money and expertise in the world, would you have done differently? What works great, what are you happiest about? How easy or hard was it? How do you feel about having done something like this as a college project — can you see using any of this in the future (tools, analysis, etc.)?
I became interested in the topic of pain specialists by having pain problems because I want to help others to stop feeling pain on their back or on their sides. My purpose for making this project is for people that are studying pain management to have better skills so they can help their patient to relieve pain better. The audience I want to direct this information to is pain specialists. I choose pain specialists as my audience because I want them to know what their level of pain management is and how some of their helping methods for relieving pain don’t work that well. I think I will use both pathos and logos. The genre I choose to use is academic essay because I can conclude what I want to say to the audience’s in a conclusion in an academic essay. Also I would like to teach pain specialists how their medicine and exercise don’t really work on their patients. I have had experiences with taking pain medicine my doctor gives. At first it works just fine but when I take it the 2 time it doesn’t work because I can still feel the pain. I also have experiences with the exercise my doctor gives me to do. Some of the exercises my pain doctor gives me helps me to relieve pain but the other exercises my pain doctor gives me me doesn’t help me to relieve pain instead it makes the pain worse. In the article Pain Specialists Evolution of Patient’s Prognosis During the First Visit Predicts Subsequent Depression and the Affective Dimension of Pain says “Foster and colleagues found that patient’s pessimism regarding their lower back pain prognosis at baseline was associated with poorer outcome 6 months later; thus it is perceivable that the the prognosis given by a physician may have the same negative efforts especially if the patient is directly or indirectly aware of of this prognosis.” Some pain specialists don’t see what the problem is with their patient for having a pain problem when they see the X-ray or MRA picture that was sent to them by the doctor that helps to take the X-ray and MRA.
“How to create a character with a real soul in it in a novel” is the topic I was searching for. It was an interesting topic to me because I realized almost everyone has a favorite or impressed character in a novel, movie, or a television drama. It was kind of attractive to find out what the comment elements that created them were. What I learned is important because only a character with a real soul is able to impress people, most of us have a favorite character, maybe from a book, a movie or a TV series. During studying this topic, I will get deeper about what the elements of those characters are. Also, I improve my creativity, imagination and writing skills during this process. So it’s a matter for me. In the beginning I thought I’ll probably focus on some “psychology” books and some articles about responses of some good books and good movies. But I found out that there are more about creating character to develop. As I chosen video talk as my genre, I will make a powerpoint first and transcript, before the transcript, I will write some bullet point about the transcript, that’s all.