Module - Written Narrative

How To Write Your Statement of Practice

In addition to making a final presentation, we invite you to send a written narrative about your practice. To that end, consider the following:

STEP ONE: Understanding Your Artist Practice

Artist Practice = Play & Research >>> Process >>> Making >>> Finishing>>> Diffusion >>> Impact & Engagement

Let's unpack this a little.

A Statement of Practice is a summary of what you make and why and the context in which you operate. An artist's life and work can be broken up into components the totality of which becomes their practice.

Bio

Generally speaking, who are you and how do you come to this work? For example, "Paola de la Calle is a Colombian-American interdisciplinary artist whose work examines home, borders, identity, and nostalgia." "Natalie Vestin is a writer, artist, and infectious disease researcher from Saint Paul, Minnesota." This is a one sentence summary of your bio.

Bio

Play & Research

How do you gather data and learn about the world? What is the role of play in your creative process? This is where you speak about the ideas you explore or investigate or are concerned with. (There is a reason those verbs in artist statements have become commonplace.)

I create art inspired by self-imposed projects with specific criteria, aiming to establish a unique language among the pieces and foster my creativity.

Process

What process do you use to turn information into art? How do you start to think about a poem or a collage? Process is conceptual. It is how marks and materials become ideas.

In my artistic journey, I contend with the intricate challenges arising from Alexithymia, a condition known as emotional blindness that hinders the identification and verbal expression of my emotions, leaving an unsettling void. My art serves as a response to this unique struggle, offering me a means to navigate and comprehend the complexities of my emotional landscape.

The choice of digital medium over analog is intentional, driven by a desire for creative freedom. My difficulty in articulating emotions verbally, due to Alexithymia, also know as emotional blindness, serves as a significant constraint, and digital tools provide me with the liberation to experiment, modify, and adapt visual symbols seamlessly. This freedom is essential in conveying the intricacies of my emotional experiences. In essence, my digital collage practice becomes a therapeutic journey, enabling me to translate the ineffable into a visual language that facilitates both self-understanding and connection with others who may share similar struggles.

I also engage in art-making by immersing myself in a specific idea through various mediums, including texts, images, videos, and songs. In many instances, the melodies of songs serve as a catalyst, influencing my inner mental state and preparing me to engage in the art-making process.

Object Making

What do you make? What materials do you use? What is the significance of those materials and processes?

My art-making process typically begins by scrolling through royalty-free images, with the majority sourced from Unsplash.com, using specific keywords. Occasionally, I incorporate selfies taken recently or images of people I personally know. Once a selection of images is saved, I embark on the process of making alterations to convey a specific intention.

Digital tools enable the application of techniques that are challenging to replicate in analog formats. Through the use of an iPad, Apple Pencil, and the Procreate app, I delve into the process of eliminating contrast commonly created when juxtaposing images. Although each individual element remains recognizable, they are distilled to only what is essential for conveying meaning.

Colour is intentionally applied using a limited and harmonious palette. The human figure, particularly bodies, hands, and faces, is a recurrent element in my work, blended with abstract paintings and set against unobtrusive backgrounds. This fusion of diluted elements creates a visual synergy that goes beyond the sum of its parts, giving rise to a cohesive new digital image. Throughout the entire process, it is not uncommon for me to listen to one specific song on a loop.

Finishing

What things do you do in your practice that facilitate the work of other art professionals? How do you document your work? How do you approach titles? Do you maintain an inventory? How do you label your images? What is your work for storage? How do you approach framing?

I dedicate a significant amount of time to maintaining a well-organized inventory of all my artworks. Each piece is named and bears a stamp with the date and signature on its front. For every established project, there is a set convention for naming each piece, while collages not part of a specific project are named based on intuition.

Ensuring the preservation of my work, the original digital files are securely backed up on the cloud. Additionally, a high-resolution digital image is generated and stored both on the cloud and my phone. To showcase my collages, I display them on Instagram and maintain a personal website.

I adopt a systematic approach to cataloging my collages, creating a file for each piece that includes a detailed description of all elements present, using hashtags for efficient searches. This method enables me to identify patterns in the most commonly used elements, colours, and the number of collages created each year.

For collages requiring printing, sale, or exhibition, vital information such as title, year, owner, and quantity of prints is registered on the back of the piece. I maintain a document detailing the records of printed collages and exhibitions. The destination of each piece determines whether I print it myself or engage a professional print company. This decision also influences the framing process, choosing between a simple frame from an art supply store or a custom frame based on the specific requirements.

Diffusion

How do you put your art out into the world? Do you show in galleries or make books? Do you exhibit in nontraditional art spaces or are you focused on museums? This may include past and future methods of diffusion.

I disseminate my work through various channels, including participating in calls for artists, utilizing Instagram, and maintaining a personal website. Over the past three years, I have compiled high-quality books curated with 20 to 25 collages created during each respective year.

Looking ahead to 2024, I plan to enhance my strategy by dedicating more effort to applying for calls for artists. Additionally, I am embarking on a collaborative project with two other artists, aiming to develop a cohesive body of work. The intention is to produce a proposal for presentation to galleries and curators.

Impact & Engagement

What do you want viewers to experience? How do you want to impact your community?

No Sure

ACTIVITY

Copy the Artist Statement you submitted in your application to the residency to a new document. Break up the statement so that each sentence is its own paragraph. Then, label each sentence using one of the categories above. What did you find? What is overemphasized? What is missing?

STEP TWO: Understanding Your Collage

See this: http://www.kasinihouse.com/lab-materials/modules/artist-as-historian.html

Interrogate your collage as if it was made by another person. Using only the information contained in the work itself, try to answer the following questions:

ACTIVITY

The question, What is it similar to?, is potentially key. Is the style similar to another artist? Does the work reflect a type of art movement? For example, if the work is photomontage, is it more in the style of the Dadaists or the Surrealists?

Once you identify your cultural ancestors, you can turn to them to inform the language you use to speak about your work. What words did they use to describe their work? What language did writers about their work use?

STEP THREE: Open A Bottle Of Wine

A pair of artists I know have a helpful process for creating text about their artwork. Once the work is complete, they hang it on the wall, open a bottle of wine, turn on a voice recorder, and start talking about the work. One will often pose questions to the other. What is it? What do you want the viewer or reader to get from it? Who is this for? The recording is sometimes transcribed and becomes the basis of a statement.

Another technique is to handwrite a letter to the viewer or reader. Imagine a person you want to see the artwork or read the poem, take out a blank piece of paper, and write to them about what you were thinking when you made it.

ACTIVITY

Try one of the above exercises or invent your own. It sometimes takes 1000 words to get 200 good words. These exercises are opportunities to pause and reflect on the work, one's practice, and one's place in the larger culture.

STEP FOUR: Write

ACTIVITY

Take the best sentences from the exercises above and organize them into a coherent statement. Use the headings below. Ask other people to read and reflect on it. Edit as needed.

Bio

Jonny Garcia is a Brazilian-Canadian self-taught multi-disciplinary artist. From an early age, driven by a passion for self-expression, Garcia immersed himself in various disciplines, including dance, mime, acrobatics, magic, and hypnotism, before delving into the visual arts.

In addition to his artistic pursuits, Garcia holds two computer degrees and currently works full-time in the financial industry. Furthermore, he possesses a degree in psychoanalysis and has experience both in private practice and within a mental institution.

Since 2019, Garcia has dedicated his efforts to exploring digital collages. His body of work consists of more than 500 digital collages. Garcia's collages have been featured in exhibitions such as Corporeal Gestures: An International Exhibition of Contemporary Collage curated by Clive Knights in 2022. In 2020, one of Garcia's collage became part of a school program in the city of Kingston, Canada. The Schwitters’ Army Collection of Collage Art at MERZ Gallery has incorporated one of Garcia's collage into its collection.

Artist Statement

The intentional choice of the digital medium over analog is driven by the desire for creative freedom. My challenge in articulating emotions verbally, stemming from Alexithymia, also known as emotional blindness, poses a significant constraint. Digital tools, however, offer me the liberation to experiment, modify, and seamlessly adapt visual symbols, providing a space for unrestricted creative exploration.

Through the use of an iPad, Apple Pencil, and the Procreate app, I delve into the process of eliminating contrast commonly created when juxtaposing images. Although each individual element remains recognizable, they are distilled to only what is essential for conveying meaning. Colour is intentionally applied using a limited and harmonious palette. The human figure, particularly bodies, hands, and faces, is a recurrent element in my work, blended with abstract forms. This fusion of diluted elements creates a visual synergy that goes beyond the sum of its parts, giving rise to a cohesive new digital image. Throughout the entire process, it is not uncommon for me to listen to one specific song on a loop. This serves as a catalyst, influencing my inner mental state and contributing to the creative atmosphere.

I dedicate a significant amount of time maintaining a well-organized inventory of all my artworks. Each piece is named and bears a stamp with the date and signature on its front. For every established project, there is a set convention for naming each piece, while collages not part of a specific project are named based on intuition.

Ensuring the preservation of my work, the original digital files are securely backed up on the cloud. I adopt a systematic approach to cataloging my collages, creating a file for each piece that includes a detailed description of all elements present using hashtags for efficient searches. This method enables me to identify patterns in the most commonly used elements, colours, and the number of collages created each year. For collages requiring printing, vital information is registered on the back of the piece. The destination of each piece determines how and where the collage will be printed and framed.

I disseminate my work through various channels, including participating in calls for artists, utilizing Instagram, and maintaining a personal website. Over the past three years, I have compiled high-quality books curated with 20 to 25 collages created during each respective year. In 2024, I will be delving into a collaborative project with two other artists with the intention to produce a proposal for presentation to galleries and curators.

STEP FIVE: Submitting Your Statement

If you would like feedback on your statement, we invite you to send the statement to ric@kasinihouse.com. Please include 3-5 images of artwork, what sort of feedback you are looking for and whether or not you are interested in a one-on-one phone call or zoom. The subject of the email should be "Collage in Practice: YOUR NAME".