How to Talk About Your Art

As a visual artist, how do you go about verbalizing your art practice? How do you respond to nice but overwhelming questions like “What do you do?” or “What type of art do you make?” Finding the right way to express your artistic practice is no small feat. Sharing your artistic practice in a way that clarifies, excites and motivates is even more challenging.

While crafting the perfect artist statement is a noble undertaking, this workshop takes a step back to look broadly at how we talk about our work, be it through a residency application, on your own website, during a studio visit, as a vendor at an art festival, or in an elevator (proverbial or actual!). This workshop will focus on how to tell your story – lucidly yet artfully – and funnel your various ideas and artistic approaches into a well-written and easily accessible statement. Through brainstorming, group discussion and individual writing exercises, attendees will be able to develop the framework and draft an elevator pitch and artist statement. As an added bonus, students will be able to stick around after the workshop for a little more personalized feedback on their work-in-progress statement.

If your current artist statement is a jumbled mess of eccentric adjectives or you fumble when asked to describe your art, this workshop is for you!

Presenter Bio:

Margaret Paulson is a storyteller, strategist, and master word tailor with an MA in International Education from Stanford. She’s passionate about and experienced in teaching people and organizations how to tell their stories in clear, confident, and powerful ways. When she’s not teaching, writing, or teaching writing, you can find Margaret learning something new (next up: Mandarin and Krav Maga), practicing power poses, and eating all of the donuts.

Finding Your Audience; Gaining Recognition is a free event kicking of our 2016 Professional Development Series What You Didn’t Learn in Art School:

Part I: Finding your Audience; Gaining Recognition 
Part II: How to Talk About Your Art
Part II: Documenting Your Artwork for Under $100
Part IV: The Start Up: A Beginning Guide to Being Self-Employed
Part V: Contracts for Creatives: How to Protect Yourself and Your Artwork 

Are you a member, but didn’t receive the discount code? Just email us! We’ll confirm your membership is current and send you the code!