Class (online): Writing Your Artist Statement, with Christine Palamidessi

Writing Your Artist Statement with Christine Palamidessi   

Wednesdays, November 2, 9, 16, 2:00-4:00pm each day

Learn to write a compelling artist statement that clearly articulates your process, practice, and concepts behind your work. Artist, writer, and teacher Christine Palamidessi explains why an artist needs a convincing, authentic statement. She walks you through language basics, word effectiveness, and workshop editing, as well as suggests how to adapt your statement narrative for websites, exhibition proposals and publications.

Session 1 | November 2 | Intro session: “If I Make Art, Why Do I Have to Write About it?” Discuss what makes a successful Artist Statement. Engage in hands-on writing exercises that will get your creative brain working. Explore verb usage, run on sentences, repetitive sentence structure and passive sentences. Brush up on all the basics of writing that you can use to create a lively, authentic and effective artist or project statement.

Session 2 | November 9 | Refining, Streamlining, and Energizing Your Statement: “What’s Your Strategy Going Forward” Engage with provided writing prompts that will help you write your first draft. Discuss your writing process and what you hope to convey with your artist statement. Share and receive personal and helpful feedback on your first draft.

Session 3 | November 16 |  Final Statement Review + Editing: “Let Me Show You My Work!” Share images of your artwork and revised artist statement. Review + Discussion, with time for final edits.

About Christine Palamidessi

Christine Palamidessi is an award-winning artist and professional writer who understands the visual-verbal conundrum artists may experience when confronting words and defining their work.  She is author of two novels, a book editor and was Professor of Writing at Boston University for 13 years before resuming her career as a visual artist. In 2017, she was a Visiting Artist at both The American Academy in Rome, and at Mass MoCA.

Palamidessi, who also has a degree in filmmaking, began her writing career in New York, where she covered the emerging video and independent film scene for the Village Voice, Interview and New Woman magazines and hung out with artists such as Basquiat, Warhol and Emile de Antonio. She earned a MA at the well-known Boston University Creative Writing program where she studied with Leslie Epstein, Sue Miller and Aharon Appelfeld.

She believes the writing process is less primal that the visual art process, and because of her practice and experience in both fields, she has keen insight into how a visual artist’s mind works.