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message from a jury committee

updated wed 21 apr 99

 

Barb Lund on tue 20 apr 99

Howdy all, the 4th St art fair in Bloomington, In just got done with its
jurying last night and I have a comment to pass along relating to the
"artist statement" thread. I am chief slide sorter (ie jury chair) and
also had the pleasure of calling out applicants code numbers to the jury as
they studied the slides projected on the screen. Our application has a
section which asks for the applicant to describe the process of making the
work. Over and over again, I was confronted with flowery artist statements
(I get my influence from nature and the natural curves of the earth sort of
thing) instead of "wheel thrown earthenware single fired to cone whatever."
I will admit that the potters were less likely to do this kind of thing
but I thought it wouldn't hurt to pass this along. Artist statement is not
necessarily description of process of production. I didn't read those
statements to the jury because they had little to do with what was up on
the screen and they did not answer the question. ( I was later thanked by
the jury for not reading those) So...just be sure to keep process and
inspiration written in their proper places. No one was penalized for the
artist statements-the work is juried by slide content only. Process was
only mentioned if a jury member asked or it seemed important to understand
what the object was up on the acreen. Hope I have helped some and not
annoyed too many! Barb in Bloomington