Artist profile

An ePortfolio should include an artist statement. This statement should be written in clear and simple language and should be no longer than 500 words. Your Artist Statement is a flexible document, and will change over time, even over a semester, so this is a way of tracking that process and documenting the shifts you have made during your time at Art School.

An Artist Statement defines your field of practical and theoretical inquiry by establishing your primary objectives, your processes and methods of production and your intended outcomes. It succinctly articulates your ideas and aims to lecturers, peers and industry experts so that appropriate comments and constructive feedback can be provided. An Artist Statement assists you in preparing written proposals that will contribute to your Professional Practice. We have developed the following instructional video to help you develop an artist statement.

See below an example of one of our Alumni taken from her professional website www.clarerae.com.

Clare Rae is an artist based in Melbourne, Australia. Clare engages photography, stop motion animation and performance to navigate and defy the limitations of the everyday environments she inhabits. Her works explore tension, portraying situations that offer alternative spatial and psychological interactions between the artist and the possibilities that are held in her surrounds. Through a dialogue on the performative body in art practice, Rae’s work seeks to address the dichotomies inherent in photography; between capture and representation.

Recent projects have engaged with site specificity, creating works that are captured and displayed within the same environment. A central interest within Rae’s practice is the exploration of performance documentation, specifically how the camera can act as a collaborator, rather than mute witness, to the performer.

As an artist you will be required to write proposals about your artworks which is an important component of your professional practice as an artist. An artwork proposal provides a framework within which to develop your artistic ideas and interests. It defines your field of practical and theoretical inquiry by establishing your primary objectives, your processes and methods of production and your intended outcomes. An artwork proposal presents your ideas and aims so that appropriate comments and constructive feedback can be provided by industry experts and your peers. Use the following outline to help you write an artwork proposal and write approximately 250 words for each element of the proposal:

• Title (one sentence that gives an overview of your project)
• Brief description of the project
• Outline your aims and objectives
• Identify methods, materials and resources
• State the intended outcomes of your project
• Include references

An ePortfolio can showcase your resolved artworks.  You might decided to create sub-pages that relate to specific courses that you are enrolled in that can only be accessed by your lecturers.  You can upload as many images  as you like, and add to the collection over your time at RMIT. You may use these images for preparing online exhibitions or applications for a variety of career opportunities. Have a look at how some of our Alumni have presented their artworks on their professional websites.

Engaging in practice based research is an important part of developing your artistic ideas and concepts. You can use your ePortfolio to document your research processes in the development of your resolved art works. Research may be visual, audio or text based. This will vary depending on your individual art practice and interests. This may include experiments, trials, works-in-progress, drawings, sketchbooks, journals, visual diaries, audio samples, photographs, video, sound, found objects, text etc. You may include ephemeral work, site specific work, virtual and digital works and documentation of any processes you have used and/or presentations/trial set ups/installations you have made with your work. You may have images by other artists, designers, images you collect about things that interest you, that influence your resolved artwork.