On Writing About My Art

One of the things that we have to learn as art students is how to talk about our own art. I don't just mean that we have to be able to point at something we've made and be able to say; “I made it, it's blue. I like blue, it's my favourite colour” but rather something a little more meaningful and substantial. That “I like blue” bit is going to you just fine if you're doing a world tour of kindergartens but by the time you get to fourth year you're pretty much expected to be able to talk about your work in a way that is both explanatory and insightful. The problem is sometimes talking about your own work can be very hard.

(Fig.1) "The Explication of The Old Man", Oil and Ink on
Wood, 99 cm x  130 cm, Dan Timmins, 2013

By definition being objective about your own work is difficult if not completely impossible. By the time you're done making something you often have quite a lot of labour invested in the piece and you've probably been staring at it for weeks or even months. Additionally the artwork that some artists create can be very personal which makes it even tougher to get the distance you need to rally think critically about what you have made. Talking about the work of someone else on the other hand is fairly easy. You've had no hand in making it and you are often seeing it for the first time so the perspective you have is fresh and new. Often when I'm not sure what's wrong with a painting or if I am trying to figure out if its done I will hide it away somewhere for a while in order to partially recreate that fresh viewing experience.

The format in which an artist usually writes about his work is often called an artist's statement. For me there are three different kinds of artist statements; the kind an artist makes for himself, the kind that an artist makes if he is applying for a residency or a show, and the kind an artist makes to be put next to his work as some kind of public explanation. Each of these types serves a different purpose and at least for me is couched in quite different language.

When I make an artist's statement for myself it is usually in the form of a list of questions about the ideas that I'm working with. I will refer to specific figures and themes within the work by names of explanations that aren't really part of any final explanation. There will also be all kinds of notes about process experiments and the like. That's just how I work through my process. A statement that I would send out in a professional capacity would be a lot more formal and would probably go into more detail about the processes being used and how those processes both express the ideas that I am trying to wrestle with as well as how they result in the final work. A statement that I would put with my work for a show would be different than either of these two: it would contain some information on the materials used and perhaps the barest hint at the ideas being addressed but little more than that.

(Fig.2) "The Old Man With Ham Drill, Buzz-saw, and
Quasi-Semi-Mysterious Hatch Window
or
I Can't Believe She is Still Here Even After All
This Time"
Oil and Ink on Wood, 46 cm x 61 cm
Dan Timmins, 2013

When it comes to someone viewing my work it's not that I am seeking to be evasive or enigmatic or that I want my work to defy explanation, rather the opposite; I want my work to be interesting and engaging. Part of making work that is engaging is not giving too much of it away. If I were to post a statement explaining every last figure or elucidating every last motivation what would the viewer have left to do? Part of what my paintings are about is my trying to successfully communicate what I can of an interior artistic world that seems to have its own rules and iconography. Some of the figures in these paintings can carry specific meanings, but since these meanings are personal I see no point in explaining their specific significance. Instead I must find ways to communicate visually that there is a significance of some kind. I must also find a way to create in the viewer a desire to probe and investigate the paintings and to wonder at the meanings within, even if the exact nature of the meaning is unknown.

Another way in which an artist must write about his work is through the use of titles. For me titles are very important and I tend to favour titles that either label a thing directly (“The Orange” or “Man With Pink Cannon”) or much more commonly that are slightly arcane but nevertheless inviting; “The Old Man with Ham Drill, Buzzsaw, and Quasi Semi-Mysterious Hatch Window or I can't Believe She is Still Here Even After All This Time”.(fig.2) While on the surface the title appears to be gibberish it provides a viewer with an entrance into the world of the painting. It points out objects to find, indicates that there are relationships between objects and finally indicates that there is some amount of choice in interpretation. These are all themes which the painting is attempting to address. Even if the title is just gibberish, then that gibberish serves as the ultimate invitation for a viewer to make up her own meaning.

(Fig. 3) "The Old Man with Microscope, Discount
Irish Castle, and Intestinal Complaint
or
The Tyranny of the Olive"
Oil and Ink on Wood, 46 cm x 61 cm
Dan Timmins, 2013

I am a student of art and as such I spend most of my time learning how to use pigments suspended in seed oil to create images on sheets of cellulose. I also spend a lot of time thinking about how and why I make art things and how I go about communicating this to other people. There is a level on which I think every artist thinks that “the art should speak for itself” and in an ideal world that might be true but in a world of students and critics and interested art novices we will always have to learn how to better use our words.

Dan Timmins