Suggestions For Explaining Your Art to Viewers

Q: I worry that some people who see my art won't understand its full meaning. I don't think they're aware of the subtler aspects of my painting and am concerned that they may misinterpret the overall intent. How can I prevent this?

A: The best way to clarify your art for viewers is to provide written documentation along with every piece that you show or sell. This information could consist of your standard artist statement, your statement in combination with a brief explanation of the particular work in question, or unique information customized to each piece. Documentation like this not only helps current viewers and collectors to understand your work, but also benefits everyone who comes into contact with your art for all time.

Good documentation tends to positively impact the value of your art in several ways. From the scholarly standpoint, people can understand the historical basis for your art. From the aesthetic standpoint, you can talk about the different facets of your art and explain how they blend together to create finished pieces. From the financial standpoint, collectors generally pay more for art that they can understand and appreciate on a variety of levels than they do for art that they know little or nothing about.

Before you start documenting your art, consider taking a census of sorts. Either ask people to tell you what they see in your art or explain your art to them and then ask whether your explanations make sense in terms of what they're looking at. If people don't understand your explanations, find out what you would have to add, subtract, or change in order to clarify yourself. If you repeatedly get similar suggestions, think about incorporating them into your documentation. Be prepared for surprises and don't be too sensitive or hostile about how people respond to you or your art. Remember that they're doing their best to help you convey the meaning of your work to others.

Whenever you explain or document your art, beware of the tendency to get too bogged down in details relating to personal issues. In a way, your art is like a daily diary or journal. The process of creating your art reflects the progression of events, insights, and growth in your life. As with a personal diary, seeing yourself and your life evolve through your art can be tremendously exciting-- to you. Outsiders, on the other hand, may find blow-by-blow descriptions of your personal evolution as revealed through your art to be tedious, boring, or irrelevant to their overall experience or enjoyment of the finished pieces. In other words, not everyone is as interested in you as you are.

Avoid getting too carried away with documentation by putting yourself in the position of a viewer who is being explained to. Imaging yourself looking at another artist's art, for instance, and having that artist go into great detail about what the art means and why it looks the way it does. Beyond a certain point, you'll see that too much explanation begins to interfere with how you experience the art and may even detract from how much you appreciate it. In like manner, having just the right amount of information enhances your experience of the art.

You don't necessarily have to go the total documentation route if you don't want to. Another option is to paint what you paint, provide your artist statement with a basic bio and a few specifics, step back, and let the viewers decide what they see in your art. Offer just a bit in the way of explanation and let the interpretations fall where they may. This might take a certain amount of self-discipline or non-involvement on your part, but if you look into the future, your art outlives you anyway. Once you're gone, people will continue say what they say and think what they think and you won't be able to do a thing about it. Even when you provide documentation, people can still overrule you or decide that something else is going on other than or in addition to what you describe. That's the way the great majority of art ends up anyway-- subject to interpretations of the viewers, whether they're scholars, critics, curators, dealers, collectors, or ordinary everyday people.

The big problem with documenting art is that it takes time. Many artists would rather spend their time creating art than writing about it. Documenting also takes writing skills and not all artists can put their experiences into written words. The documentation process can become counterproductive after a point if it begins to detract from the creation and quality of the art itself. If you want to document your art, but need help, ask a writer or editor to assist you. If you just plain hate to write, then make your art and be done with it.

However you proceed, don't get too involved in controlling outcomes. People make of art what they want to make of it. Even when you explain it to them in writing or in person, they may or may not agree with you. In the final analysis, they'll make up their own minds. Offer what you will in terms of explanation, but then stand back and allow viewers to enjoy themselves. Appreciate the fact that at least they're taking the time to look at and reflect upon what you've created. That's a major accomplishment in and of itself.