Talking About Your Art

In college we were encouraged to learn how to talk well about our artwork in college during critiques. Some students were naturals and enjoyed the task while those of us that were a bit more shy felt pretentious and goofy trying to put words to what we were doing. Often we did not even know what was behind some of the work that sprung out of us. Over the years I have gotten a bit better at communicating in general and much better at talking about my work. It is however hard sometimes to really dig deep and offer up true insight into the conceptual process at times.

Yesterday I posted a link to my youtube playlist of artists talking about their work. If you are an artist reading this I encourage you to check out a few of those videos again and in addition to enjoying their stories try to grade the speakers in your mind. Look at some videos of well known successful artists and look at other people you may never have heard of. I think you will find that when it comes to "talking about art" we are all on a level playing field regardless of talent, fame and recognition. By watching others try to communicate their stories we can better understand that we are all just people, and we all have stories to tell. When you share your art by talking about your process or talking about your inspiration you are not boasting or "selling"... instead you are being generous, you are "sharing yourself". Below I have embedded Tim Burton, and someone I just discovered recently, Jana Demartini.

Tim Burton Video:

Jana Demartini Video: