Artist Statement

Artist statements are critical tools in building an audience and yet they are like photographs in that they are true only for a moment in time. The artist is always evolving and the artist statement changes accordingly. An artist statement draws boundaries around an artist’s work to lend order to chaos, demystify and concretize an ephemeral process which is invisible, illogical and boundless. Artist statements provide context for a body of work and to make an artist’s thematic obsessions clear to an audience who may have only seen a fraction of their output. Grant funding and exhibition opportunities require an artist to excel at analytical writing and art-making equally, though they radically different skills.

ARTIST STATEMENT acknowledges the importance of writing about one’s work, while recognizing that analysis can also interfere in the creative process. The more difficult the work is to categorize, the more important the artist statement becomes as a way to clarify an artist’s work. But the work and the context are still not enough for a female artist, who fights harder to make, exhibit and have her work accepted by an audience. The fastest way to legitimize a female artist is to have a male supporter champion what she does.

The film arose from my experience at festival Q&As talking my films. I noticed the range of comfort levels among my fellow filmmakers in talking about what they did. Even the most frequently asked question at a festival - "what inspired you to make this film" - could trip up some. The act of writing or talking about a creative process is an unrelated skill that must be developed in tandem with the work in order to survive as an artist. At the same time I became painfully aware of how singular the voices at some festivals were. Programs containing work by women, PoC and LGBTQ filmmakers were like a breath of fresh air.

Oftentimes the people in a position to help an artist’s career through funding, exhibition or promotion don’t empathize with alternate viewpoints and may cite “lack of quality” or “lack of experience” or “lack of merit” in their dismissal. This implicit bias results in the underrepresentation of women, PoC and LGBTQ filmmakers. The artist collective Guerilla Girls has been pointing this out for decades in the art world. These excuses uphold the status quo and ignore the fact that we don’t start from the same set of assumptions. Nothing will change until people in power reevaluate their selection criteria to see how they punish some groups while benefitting others. Even in the era of #metoo, little has changed in terms of onscreen and on-set representation. Women, PoC and LGBTQ filmmakers fight harder for what we achieve and it is more difficult for us to recover from missteps. These inequities are only some of the hurdles to overcome when we decide to work rather than curling up in a ball. Every finished film is a miracle. Some miracles are greater than others.