Bios and Artist's Statements for Online Materials

Crafting a cool and effective bio to put on your portfolio website, Talent Pool profile, and
anywhere else you represent yourself is a simple way to let people know what you’re up to and to introduce your work samples.

Understand a bio not as a chance to tell your history as a creative person ("I was seven years old when I started drawing pictures of my cat...") but instead a chance to say who you are right now ("My illustrations are about capturing motion; in animals, athletes, windblown trees, waves, whatever.").  A bio is also an opportunity to say what your take is on doing good work.

If you've got attitude, commitment, a great work ethic- make sure it comes across.

State your immediate goals in your bio, not your long-term goals.  "I wish to direct major motion pictures that will bring about world peace," might be off-putting to someone looking to hire a PA or even an Assistant Director.  "I want to work on every feature that I possibly can, to learn as much as possible," is way more effective.

Be sincere and to the point.  Funny is good, if in fact, you are funny.  But most importantly,
be yourself.  Use your own words. Write in the first person or risk sounding like a punch-drunk boxer. (Everyone reading it will know your bio was written by you not by a professional writer, right?) Write it like you'd say it aloud, only cleaned up in terms of grammar and punctuation.  And lastly, be brief.  Get it done in a paragraph.

If this writing task seems impossible, get help from a teacher, advisor, or one of the nice people in the Writing Center. In all cases, have someone proof your work for correct grammar and punctuation before you put it online.

An Artist's Statement is integral to the presentation of a body of fine art online or elsewhere.  It can position your work among other genres and media, provide a historical context, and better enable the viewer to appreciate your project.  Ideally you will have completed this important written piece as part of the process of completing the body of work it accompanies.  Right? Right.

A strategy to consider in an online situation is to put an excerpt of your artist’s statement up front with the full statement linked to another page or pdf.  A carefully selected excerpt will give the viewer the essence of your project and might further encourage them to read the full text- but won't sidetrack them from viewing the work itself.

If you need help writing an artist’s statement, there’s a ton of free advice online.  And, no doubt your teachers will give you some guidance.  Here a few pointers: Make sure your statement is actually about the work it will accompany- not about all your work or art in general.  Say it plainly and briefly- no one is impressed with a lot of empty words even if they are impressively long and rarely used.  And remember that the point of an artist’s statement is to give folks a little information so they can better enjoy and appreciate the project at hand.