How to teach artist statments.

The defintiton of an artist statment is  It is a text composed by an artist and intended to explain, justify, and contextualize his or her body of work. Artists often have a short (50-100 word) and/or a long (500-1000 word) version of the same statement, and they may maintain and revise these statements throughout their careers.(ebsqart) We had to write artist staments on all of our pieces that we posted on our blog. I would say that the easiest way to teach artist staments would simply be by telling the kids to just write what ever their piece of art that they have created makes them feel. After you have had your students do this Molly Gordon an artist has these tips to help a students artist statement make more sense. "Read your statement out loud. Listen to the way the sounds and rhythms seem to invite pauses. Notice places where you'd like the sound or rhythm to be different. Experiment with sounding out the beats of words that seem to be missing until they come to mind. Do this several times until you have a sense of the musical potential of your statement. As you read your statement, some phrases will ring true and others false." By reading these things out loud you get to hear what they sound like. Often times when we are writing what we feel it sounds good to us in our head but by reading it aloud they can better their artist statment. "There is great satisfaction in witnessing the students’ growing independence. Watching them learn about themselves, develop skills, make historical and cultural connections and emerge as young artists with unique visions ultimately invigorates my own search." This statment said by Joseph Mannino shows the importance in really helping your students grow and by teaching them to write artist statments you are really helping your students grow as artists.