bio Archives - Art Biz Success

Artist Bio vs. Artist Statement vs. About Page

Sun, 05 Jan 2020 15:30:00 +0000

If you are confused about the difference between your artist biography and artist statement, I’m here to help!

See if these explanations give you a better picture of these two documents.

Artist Biography

Your professional artist bio is kind of like your résumé in paragraph form (but less boring). It highlights your top accomplishments—usually with the most recent and most important at top.

Your bio gets to the point. It’s not a place for you to share everything you’ve ever done or get into your personal life.

Your bio is written in 3rd person unless it’s an autobiography, in which case you’d use the 1st person.

Formula for a 3-Paragraph Artist Bio.

Artist Statement

Your artist statement is about your art, not about you. More to the point, it’s about the current direction of your work, not a history of how you got to where you are now.

Your artist statement is written in the 1st person. After all, it is a statement.

For good measure, let me throw in one more piece of writing.

About Page

About pages are the page on your website where your artist bio and statement come together. They should be less formal than the proper bio you would use to share with a museum or gallery.

How you approach your About page depends on your goals as an artist, but there should be text about both you and your art on this page.

I’m fond of About pages that use humor combined with an interesting twist on serious facts. I tried to do that on the Art Biz Success About page.

This post was first published on November 8, 2010 and has been updated with original comments intact.

See This!

The Successful Artist’s Guide to Writing Your Artist Statement

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Formula for a 3-Paragraph Artist Bio

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 14:20:02 +0000

Stuck on writing your artist biography or About page for your website?

After deciding whether to use 1st or 3rd person, follow this simple formula to get started.

1st paragraph

1-2 terrific sentences from your artist statement or summarizing your statement.

2nd paragraph

Your proudest accomplishments in sentence form—not bullets—3-4 sentences max. If you are using the 3rd person, it would look like these examples.

She has shown her work . . .
She is represented by . . .
Her work can be seen in the collections of . . .
She has received [grants, awards] . . .

3rd paragraph

Two sentences: Your education and geographical location (or history of where you’ve lived). If you are using the 1st person, it might look like these sentences.

I received my BFA from . . .
I was born in . . . have lived in . . . and currently reside in . . .

Easy enough to switch those to 3rd person if you need to.

This is just a formula. It’s up to you to be more creative with your artist bio.

The post Formula for a 3-Paragraph Artist Bio appeared first on Art Biz Success.

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About pages in 1st or 3rd person: A compromise

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:20:20 +0000

In response to yesterday’s Art Marketing Action on About pages, Web designer and today’s guest author Patricia J. Velte has this to contribute.

The 1st person v. 3rd person discussion for About pages on web sites can be a tough one for me to balance with my web design clients since artists’ sites are often light on the amount text they include. Google, an important “target audience” to consider, uses the plain (HTML) text to understand a web site. If an artist’s name appears only in a graphic logo it may be highly beneficial to incorporate the full name into the text on several pages within the site or the site may be invisible to people searching for the artist by name.

Nancy Hammer Bradford, Balcony in Giverny. Oil on linen, 20 x 16 inches. ©The Artist

The About page is sometimes the only page with a lot of text on an artist’s site so it becomes a candidate for including the name and description of the artist’s work, making 3rd person a choice, sort of by default. For example, on a graphic-heavy site, including “Mary Jo Miller, a portrait artist in Portland, has received awards for her commissioned paintings of children and families” gives Google a lot to work with and, importantly to connect with Mary Jo Miller. Google just doesn’t understand who “I” in 1st person text is.

Before writing an About in either 1st or 3rd person it might be good to inventory the site to see how many times the name appears in plain (HTML) text. Another good test is to enter the artist’s name in Google and see if any sites show up above the artist’s site. If art guild or exhibits the artist is involved with, or personal sites show up first, the artist has done a poor job of including his/her name in the text on the site.

I love 1st person bios so I’m always looking for ways to avoid the dreary “Google matters” lecture with artists.

→Here’s a compromise format I’ve used with success. Start with a headline at the top of the page, such as “About Mary Jo Miller.” Put the text under the headline in 1st person, but include on the page a brief quote from one or more of collectors that incorporates the artist’s name: “Mary Jo Miller’s portraits are stunning and original . . . ” It can make a big difference.

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Tweak Your About Page

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:42:06 +0000

Last week I reviewed a formal biography and gave you an easy-to-use, three-part bio format. If you missed that post, you can find it here: Work On Your Biography.

You don’t always need or want a stiff-sounding bio. In fact, if you want to relate directly to your fans, an informal bio is a better choice. Because most of us start writing informal bios for the About page of our websites and blogs, let’s look at the informal bio through that lens.

A successful About page is injected with your personality. It lists your accomplishments, but it also includes personal stories and perhaps even hobbies and interests. It has your energy–or maybe the energy you’d like to have!

About pages are often written in the 1st person (About Me) because that is more conversational than the 3rd person (About the Artist/Biography). Besides, we all know that you are the voice behind your website or blog, so sometimes the 3rd person looks odd when read along with other parts of your site. Whatever voice you choose to use, be consistent while creating a bond with your community.

Writing a compelling About page is a process. As with your other promotional material, you should always be improving your About page with colorful stories. If you don’t think you have interesting stories, think again. Almost any fact can be improved upon. Using an example from my life, there’s the dry way to say something:

“I received my MA in art history from the University of Texas at Austin.”

. . . and the one that tells a better story:

“My Oklahoma Sooner family forgave me when I packed my bags and headed to the University of Texas at Austin to work on my MA in art history. They know I still bleed crimson and cream!”

Try doing this with the facts from your bio. It’s easy and fun!

FINAL WORD: An About page or informal bio is filled with your personality.

PODCAST

The podcast is an audio version of this content.

[powerpress url=”http://artbizsuccess.com/audio/aboutpage.mp3″]

The post Tweak Your About Page appeared first on Art Biz Success.

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Art Marketing Action: Work On Your Biography

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 14:00:18 +0000

There are two primary ways to write your biography: formal and informal.

The formal bio is you at your most professional. It’s straight-laced–some might even say “stiff.” It’s what you hand in with your job, grant, or gallery application. The formal bio is what you learn to write in your last semester of art school.

In short, your formal bio is your résumé in paragraph form. Take the highlights from the dates and bullet points on your résumé and make a story out of them. Here’s an example of an easy 3-part artist’s bio that I like to use with clients.

1. Opening Paragraph

I like to start a bio with a one- or two-sentence summary of the artist statement. This lets the reader knows immediately about your current work and gives context to what comes after it.

2. Middle Paragraph(s)

This is where you list your accomplishments. They could be–like your résumé–in reverse chronological order or according to importance. Don’t highlight something you did thirty years ago and leave it at that. You want to sound vibrant and relevant today. Aim for a paragraph or two in this section.

3. Closing Paragraph

Mention your education, where you’ve lived, where you reside, your birth location and—if desired–your year of birth.

PODCAST

The podcast is an audio version of this content.

[powerpress url=”http://artbizsuccess.com/audio/workonbio.mp3″]

The post Art Marketing Action: Work On Your Biography appeared first on Art Biz Success.

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Deep Thought Thursday: Age

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:24:05 +0000

Do you consider your age a positive or negative (or neither) for your art career?

Do you reveal your age on your website, etc?

The post Deep Thought Thursday: Age appeared first on Art Biz Success.

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