Artist Statement Guidelines

Part 2 of the Unit 3 Assignment

Note: The Artist’s Statement is the one page (double spaced) document you will write after you have created your chosen assignment for Unit 3, Part 1.

If you haven’t read it, visit the Artist’s Statement in the assignment. In this post, I go into more detail about this part of the assignment.

Explaining the rationale behind your creative decisions is an important kind of reflective writing. In an Artist’s Statement, the creative process is made visible. Composers and creative professionals of all types (writers, motivational speakers, painters, graphic designers, musicians, actors, etc.)  provide an Artist’s Statement for their audience that explains their inspirations, intentions, and choices in their creative process. The Artist’s Statement 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.

A successful Artist’s Statement reflects on: 

  • the artist’s overall understanding of the chosen genre (and the elements, style, design, and use of sources that characterize it)
  • the specific rhetorical situation (reasons for composing, the target audience, and the choice of mode and medium).

Your one page Artist’s Statement, which you will write after you have created the larger project for Unit 3, should contain the following:

  1. Provide context for your project. What is the “story” of your project? How did you become interested in the topic? What were your inspirations? 
  2. Discuss your specific rhetorical situation: In other words:  “why?” Why did you decide to write in the genre you did? Why did you choose the audience you did? Why did you decide to talk about this particular aspect of the  research you completed in Unit 2? What is the purpose of your piece? How did you work within the conventions of your genre?
  3. Reflect on how the creative process went.  Look back at your composition and evaluate the extent of your achievement as well as note what you would have done differently or better.

Note: You can also use ideas you explored in your Unit 3 Project Proposal as well as writing you did on the Discussion Board post Reflect on your previous writing about your intended audience and the genre you chose.