A portfolio presentation in any format is a demonstration of your skills and talents and a suggestion of your style or artistic vision. Crafting a carefully written statement to put on your portfolio website can enhance the impression your work makes and clarify your goals.
Understand a bio not as a chance to tell your history as a creative person ("I was five years old when I started drawing pictures of my cat...") but instead a chance to say who you are right now ("My illustration work is about capturing motion; in animals, athletes, cars, windblown trees, waves, whatever."). A bio is also an opportunity to say what your take is on how to be successful or do good work in the profession or medium that you are entering. If you've got attitude, commitment, a great work ethic; make sure it comes across.
State your immediate goals in your bio, not your long-term goals. "I wish to direct major motion pictures that will bring about world peace," might be off-putting to someone looking to hire a PA or even an Assistant Director. "I want to work on every feature that I possibly can, to learn as much as possible," is more effective.
Be sincere and to the point. Funny is good, if in fact, you are funny. Most importantly, be yourself. Don't try to sound like an art historian, Snoop Dogg, or Don Pardo. Use your own words. Write in the first person or risk sounding like a punch-drunk boxer. (Everyone reading it will know your bio was written by you not by a professional writer, right?) Write it like you'd say it aloud, only cleaned up in terms of grammar and punctuation. And lastly, be brief. You should be able to get all of the above done in a paragraph.
If this writing task seems impossible, get help from a teacher, advisor, or someone in the Writing Center. In all cases, have someone proof your work for correct grammar and punctuation before you put it on your website.
An Artist's Statement is integral to the presentation of a body of fine art online or elsewhere. It can position your work among other genres and media, provide a historical context, and better enable the viewer to appreciate your project. Ideally you will have completed this important written piece as part of the process of completing the body of work it accompanies. Right? Right.
A strategy to consider in a web presentation is to put an excerpt of your artist?s statement on the homepage with the full statement linked to another page or pdf. A carefully selected excerpt will give the viewer the essence of your project and might further encourage them to read the full text but won't sidetrack them from viewing the work itself.
As above, if you need help, get it.
If neither a bio nor an artist statement seems to fit your particular web portfolio, consider finding a quote that gets to the heart of your work without leading the readers attention astray. Or simply write a line or two that introduces the work. Or if you think your work really and truly speaks for itself and won?t suffer from the lack of grounding that a written piece can provide go without.
Tim Long is an accomplished photographer and the Director of the Portfolio Center.
