My Artist Statement

Below is my finished artist statement:

Throughout my life I have always been interested and involved with art in some way or another, with art courses I have done and work that I have completed and produced within my own time for my own pleasure. I have gone through many stages in my life of different types and forms of art, including producing paintings, cartoon art, graffiti art and taking photographs. All the way through these stages in my life I have always been interested in and amazed by animation and three dimensional and two dimensional effects and visuals and any sort of computer graphical images, and I have always wondered how they have been produced.

About three years ago after enrolling in a Digital Arts and Music Technology degree I started to learn how to do three dimensional animation and how it works and really got into it. I was only taught the basics in object and character animation but I found it amazing what you could produce with such a program. As I learnt to animate a little bit more I found I was interested in more conceptual animation. So rather than producing character animations with storylines and spoken words I preferred to produce animations with a concept and meaning behind them and to then add music to help portray what I was trying to put across in my work.

Since learning how to animate I have also learnt a few other programs that have enabled me to produce certain effects and add these to my animations. I now feel I am an able video artist and am pleased with the work I produce. My video art can be used for a number of things such as to produce a music video and be used by a VJ (video/visual jockey) for a VJ set within a nightclub or venue. I also take stills from my video art which I think are really aesthetically pleasing which I feel adds another production piece from my animation, so I am a video artist and imagery artist.

At first with the animations I have produced I always started out with an exact plan of what I wanted the finished piece to look like. Currently I am very much involved with and interested in experimenting with animations I have produced and any further animations I produce. I am experimenting with different effects and visuals to add to my video art using different programs, and it is quite interesting not to know what the out come will be. Sometimes it can go terribly wrong but then when it doesn’t I end up with a really good aesthetically pleasing piece of video art to view.

I would soon like to start producing my own music for some of my conceptual pieces of animation and video art because I think this really adds to the feel of the piece and in helping with providing the viewer with an extra way to put the concept across. When people view my conceptual animations I would really like for them to understand the meaning and feel something from the piece. With people viewing my video art from animation to three dimensional and two dimensional visuals and effects I would quite like for people to look at it and think its interesting and wonder how I produced it.

Although I have been producing work within this field for almost three years I still feel relatively new to it and am always finding something new to use within my videos, or a new effect to add to my animation and also having new ideas for animations to produce, which I think is absolutely great and is what I enjoy and love about what I do.

At the moment I am more involved with experimenting and producing video art of animations and three dimensional and two dimensional visuals and effects for things such as VJ sets rather than producing a conceptual animation, but in the near future I would like to produce some more pieces like this. At the moment I have produced several pieces of video art and am working on more at the moment and have a few hundred images. I am also working on the production of a music video for a dance song where I am using some of the videos I have already produced and also experimenting with different three dimensional and two dimensional effects and visuals and also different filming techniques to produce short videos for the piece.

Contact List

Below are the contacts I have collected together. I started out by putting together a list of personal contacts and people that I know, from here I have then collected the contacts for organisations from my personal list of people that I know who in turn have their own contact lists within their field of work.

I have put this list together from people I know by working in a nightclub and also people who I know that are musicians, DJ’s, VJ’s and work within the promotional side of clubs, festivals and events and music production. From these people I know I have gained more contacts to add to my personal and organisational contacts. I have gathered and put together a list of contacts that I think will be helpful for me at present and in the future for promoting and selling my work. For example I have got musicians on my list because they produce a song at some point where they may want a video produced for it. I have got VJ contacts because they may wish to buy and use my video art for their VJ sets in clubs and at events and I also have contacts of people working with promotion of all sorts who may wish to use my images in some way. These are just a few examples of the sort of contacts in my lists and why I feel they are necessary.

Personal Contacts:

1. Kevin Harris – Promotions and event management, night time entertainer, musician, music producer and DJ (k.harris@hdpromotions.co.uk)
2. Simon Davis – Lighting engineer, musician, music producer and video technician, VJ (video jockey), LJ (light jockey) and DJ (disc jockey) (djskeff@hotmail.com)
3. Julian Holyoak – Lockmeadow site manager (ikon-maidstone@luminarleisure.co.uk)
4. Karl Hernandez – Promotions and event management (ikon-maidstone@luminarleisure.co.uk)
5. Ikon – Night club (visuals played) (ikon-maidstone@luminarleisure.co.uk)
6. Jumping Jaks – Night club (visuals played) (ikon-maidstone@luminarleisure.co.uk)
7. Hotshots – Bar (visuals played) (ikon-maidstone@luminarleisure.co.uk)
8. Luminar Leisure – Night club and bar management and organisation (enquiries@luminar.co.uk)
9. Mark Hadaway – Musician and music producer
10. HD Promotions – Promotional and event organisation (info@hdpromotions.co.uk)
11. Darren Stone – DJ (Resident Redhill, Windsor and Crawley) (djdarrenstone@blueyonder.co.uk)
12. DJ Knowledge – DJ, musician and music producer

Organisational Contacts:

1. Simon Welsh – Clever Clogs artist management (simon@cleverclogs.co.uk)
2. David Dollimore – AYR Management M.O.S (d.dollimore@ministryofsound.com)
3. AnD Press – Vinyl Press/Promotion (info@andpress.co.uk)
4. Eminence Leisure – Artist/Entertainment Agency (pauldelaross@eminenceleisure.co.uk)
5. Concord – Artist Management (emmajayne1977@hotmail.com)
6. Xtreme Talent – Urban Artist Management (sarah@xtremetalent.co.uk)
7. Studio 45 – Music Production/Promotion (studio45.office@ntlworld.com)
8. 24 Management – Artist/ProductionManagement (info@24management.com)
9. Andy Rutherford – Production Management (andy@andpress.co.uk)
10. Armada – International Record Label (info@armadamusic.com)
11. Bar Flya – Flyer/Poster Design and Print (studio@barflya.com)
12. Casa Design – Flyer/Poster Design and Print (info@casadesign.co.uk)
13. Chris Funkos – Promtional/Eevent Organisation (funkos@hotmail.co.uk)
14. Collaborator – Flyer/Poster Design and Print (katie@collaborator.co.uk)
15. Halo – Sound and Lighting Production (danny.hennessy@btopenworld.com)
16. DJ Dante – London Urban DJ (Former Ethos Resident) (info@djdante.net)
17. Dave Hatch – DJ Pool Agency Manager (dave@dj-paul.co.uk)
18. Dean Wilson – Production Management (dean@andpress.co.uk)
19. DNF – Party Pack Distribution (info@dnfparty.co.uk)
20. Essential Direct – Record Distribution/Label (info@essentialdirect.co.uk)
21. Femme Fatale – Urban DJ (bookings@utopiadjs.com)
22. Fierce Angels – Record Label/Events/Production (nadia@fierceangels.com)
23. Ray Boreham – Nightclub Manager (rboreham@aol.com)
24. GSL – Sound and Lighting Production (rich@gsl.com)
25. Guildford SL – Sound and Lighting Production (sales@guildfordsl.com)
26. Hatty Loveheart – Fierce Angels Resident (Formally Hed Kandi) (hatty_lovehearts@hotmail.com)
27. Honeyclub – Nightclub (info@thehoneyclub.co.uk)
28. Incentive – Record Label (incentive@incentivemusic.co.uk))
29. James K.O.S – Local Newspaper Editor (james@kosmedia.com)
30. Jason Ellis – AYR Positiva Record (jason@positiva.co.uk)
31. Provide UK – Events Artist Management (john@provide.co.uk)
32. John Loved UP – Events/Artist Management (Brandon Block/Alex P) (john@lovedup.com)
33. Julian Callis – Sales Exectutive KMFMb (sales@kmfm.co.uk)
34. Karl Brentwood – Urban Music Producer/DJ
35. Kenny Ken – Drum and Base DJ (info@urbantakeover.co.uk)
36. Mario Piu Agent – Worldwide DJ/Producer
37. Martin Scully – Music Producer/DJ (signed work by P.V.D) (martinscully@hotmail.com)
38. Mn2s – Events/Artist Management/Record Label (ben@mn2s.com)
39. M8 Magazine – Nationwide Editorial (info@m8magazine.com)
40. Neon – Events/Artist Management (info@neonmanagement.com)
41. Nicky Black-market – Drum and Base DJ (info@urbantakeover.co.uk)
42. Paul Johnson – Event Manager/DJ M.O.S Singapore (djbpjohnson@hotmail.com)
43. Paul Stix – Turn mills Promoter (info@turnwills.co.uk)
44. Pete Doyle – Events/Artist Management/Record Label (pete@pinnicle.co.uk)
45. SB Marketing – Flyer/Poster Design and Print (james@sbmarketing.co.uk)
46. Simon Hoole – Nightclub Manager (clubindigo/Folkestone@luminar.co.uk)
47. Slikmats – Slip mat Design and Print (info@slikmats.com)
48. CMYK – Flyer/Poster Design and Print (studio@iwantposters.com)
49. Stuart Petters – DJ/Promoter (stuart.peet@orange.net)
50. Student Republic – Promoters Student Market Canterbury (party_republic@hotmail.com)
51. Zero 21 – Flyer/Poster Design and Print (info@zero21.co.uk)

I have collected many contacts within this list of some very large companies through people that I know. I thought these might be useful if I wished to take my work higher and get in contact with these companies to see if they wish to use my video art or stills in any way or if they would like me to produce a music video for them.

My Artist Statement

Before I looked into and researched for other artist statements I think I already had quite a good idea of what should be included in one. It has helped me reading other artist statements as I have viewed a range of good ones and bad ones and it has been good to see this. I feel I have everything I need within my artist statement including my background and how I got into what I do, what I do and how I do it. I don’t really think the length of the artist statement depicts if it is good or not just as long as it includes these things I have just stated because most of the artist statements I have read have been quite short only being a few hundred words apart from two.

Wobbe F. Konig – Video Artist

The final artist statement I came across was by a video artist called Wobbe F. Konig, with the explanation of some of the work he has produced it sounds quite similar to what I have done. This is the longest artist statement I have read being about 600 words and I think it is quite good. It is very detailed and explains everything that I think people would want to know about the work he produces. His statement explains what field within the art area he works in, what work he produces and how his work has evovled over time, the process of his work and what he is working on now. The only thing that I think is missing from this artist’s statement is a little introduction of his background and how he got into what he does.

Bibliography:

1. Wobbe F. Konig – Artists Statement, (2006) available at:
http://www.ideepix.nl/wobbe/index.php?show=statement
(accessed: Saturday 3rd March 2007)

Isis Rodriguez – Cartoon Artist

I have found an artist statement by a cartoon artist called Isis Rodriguez, again like most of the other artist statements I have seen it is quite short being only about 250 words. Although it is quite short it I think it quite good and includes a fair bit of information, I think it could maybe be made better by a little bit more description and detail though. The artist starts off explaining about her background and influences and how she got into being a cartoon artist, what her work is about and how she produces her work. This seems to be the basic layout for a few of the artist statements I have read and I think it is what the statement should include and in this order and this is what I want for my finished artist statement. I want for people reading my artist statement to know my background and how I got into what I do, what I do and how do it.

Bibliography:

1. Isis Roriguez – Artist’s Statement, (2006), available at:
http://www.isisrodriguez.com/statement.htm
(accessed: Saturday 3rd March 2007)

Janine Dupont dit Diponis – Visual Artist

The next artist statement I found was by a visual artist called Janine Dupont dit Diponis. Its is quite long compared the other artist statements I have come across and is nearly 600 words. The artist starts her statement off with an explanation of how she got into painting and deeply expresses her passion for what she does, she then follows this up with her background and the artists whp have influenced her work. The next part of her statement explains what she wants to achieve with her work and also the production of her paintings. I think this artist statement is very good, it is very detailed and I think includes nearly everything that is needed within it.

Bibliography:

1. Janine Dupont dit Diponis – Artist Statement, (2004), available at:
http://www.janinedupont.com/art_statement/index_e.html
(accessed: Saturday 3rd March 2007)

Lyle Carbajal – Painter

I didn’t just want to look up artist statements from video artists as this is what I produce, I also wanted to view other artist’s statements that are involved within other areas of art and see if they have the same sort of approach. I came across a painter called Lyle Carbajal whos artist statement explains what his work is about and involves, I think it is quite a detailed short piece and is quite good. However, before reading his artist statement I read his biographical information which I think would work well as being part of his artist statement as it explains hist background and influences and I think this would work well as being the first part and introduction within his artist statement.

Bibliography:

1. Artquotes.net – Lyle Carbajal, (2007), available at:
http://www.artquotes.net/artists/carbajal/artist-statement.htm
(accessed: Saturday 3rd March 2007)

Rohesia Hamilton Metcalfe Artist Statement

The artist statement I found for a video artist called Rohesia Hamilton Metcalfe is quite an interesting piece, it is still quite short being only about 200 words but I think it describes and explains quite a lot about her work. Her statement starts out with what she likes about the work she is involved in, the content of her work and what she aims to do within her work and also what she would like the viewer the get from her work. Overall I think this artist’s statement is quite good and is better than others that I have viewed so far.

Bibliography:

1. Rohesia Hamilton Metcalfe – Artist Statement, (2006), available at:
http://www.panix.com/~hamiltro/biography/statement.shtml
(accessed: Saturday 3rd March 2007)

Alexandra Juhasz – Video Artist

The artist statement I came across for Alexandra Juhasz wasn’t quite what I saw as an artist statement. I see an artist statement as explaining what you do and why in order to promote yourself and your work well. However, Alexandra’s statement was really just explaining about one piece of work he has produced and how and why. It is quite an in depth statement about his work but I don’t really think it is an artist statement as such, more a statement and explanation of a piece of work.

Bibliography:

1. Alexandra Juhasz – Video Remains, (2005), available at:
http://pzacad.pitzer.edu/~ajuhasz/video_remains/cast_crew_statement.html
(accessed: Saturday 3rd March 2007)

Sim Sadler – Video Artist

When I first started to search for artist statements I was searching for specific artists and their statements, however I didn’t find many to have one. So I then did a general search on the Internet for video artists artist statements which brought me statements to view and help me with my own. The first one I came across was for a video artist called Sim Sadler, I read through his biography and viewed some of his work to see what he did and then read his artist statement. His artist statement is quite short, only being about 120 words and explains what work he produces, what his videos involve and what they are about. It is quite a short artist statement and I think it needs a bit more explanantion about how he got into it and about his enjoyment and passion for it maybe and I don’t personally feel this is a complete and finished statement, but I think waht he has written about his work is good.

Bibliography:

1. Sim Sadler – Artist Statement, (2006), available at:
http://www.simsadler.net/ArtState.html
(accessed: Saturday 3rd March 2007)