Sale on canvas prints! Use code ABCXYZ at checkout for a special discount!

Artist Biography Advice

Blogs: #47 of 67

Previous Next View All
Artist Biography Advice

Bear With Me, by Amy E. Fraser (Age 5, 1979)

Here’s me in first grade, modeling my award winning Bear With Me T-shirt design. From what I remember this super amazing bear drawing won first place in our school competition, beating out all of the other students, grades 1-6. Not that you can tell from my bored expression but this was a pretty exciting accomplishment for a five year old and it probably set in stone my one and only career choice of *Artist*. You might say the Amy E. Fraser Artist Brand originated in this moment (lol). These sorts of accolades and awards continued for me throughout grade school and high school. Thanks to the support and encouragement of my step father I was also able to supplement my art education with college art courses throughout high school and was chosen to participate in numerous art electives like glass blowing and interior design. All of which played a part in my acceptance to Parsons School of Design. This sounds like a big deal for a small town country girl. And it was, Parsons is an elite art school (ranked #1 for Art and Design in the USA and #2 in the world), the Ego was certainly a thing… But oh let me tell you! The first day of orientation I received a serious reality check. All of us are sitting in the packed theater sweating our butts off (but still affecting our best art school airs) when the speaker says something along the lines of “each and every one of you was voted Most Artistic in your class, your school, maybe even your town, but get over it because now you are just one small fish in a giant sea of artists of your caliber or better”. Ouch. Bye Ego. Rewind, rethink, deflate, rebuild.
The moral of today’s art story? Trim down your Artist Biography! Please don’t take this the wrong way because trust me, I’ve made this mistake as well. But I’ve recently been reading your biographies and some of you sound like you think your pretty special... The reality is that no one cares that you have been an artist since birth, or that you won every art award at the county fair. That is not original or unique, and quite frankly it is similar for most of us who call ourselves Artists. Don’t bore your future patrons or gallery prospects with the same old, been there, heard that artist tale. Wow them with something truly distinctive to just you. Be Authentic, but never Ordinary! This is tough love, and I’m sorry if it is painful to hear, but someone had to tell you.
When in doubt, always remind yourself of the immortal words spoken by my favorite art school drag queen “Oh Honey, Calm Down, We Are All Fabulous Here!”

Photos and active links are unavailable in this format. Please go to the official Amy E. Fraser Art blog to see more: https://aefraserart.blogspot.com/2019/11/artist-biography-advice.html