I'm supposedly in an "art show" this weekend, I probably don't belong there but the director said stained glass would be different.  She insists it must be art, not craft.  Well, my original design pickins are slim, but every scrap glass item is one of a kind and I have a few I love well enough I really don't want to part with them.  So, hey, stick on an art price (as opposed to a craft price) and I either get to keep them or I get compensated for giving them up.  (I'll give her a chance to kick me out of the show if she disdains them, but I think only a glass worker knows they are accidental scrap glass assemblies.) 

But they want an "artist's statement" of two or three paragraphs.  I rarely read those things, most sound hokey .  But I wrote one, hey I sound good on paper!  (Why would anyone care what an artist sounds like on paper, you like the art or you don't.)

Probably no one will read this post until after the event, but does this sound like a decent "artist's statement" or should I be inventing some deep sounding philosophy about "the contribution of art to world peace" or "my passion to express the inexpressable that is common to all humankind" or some such?  I need guidance just in case I turn into a real live artist some day! 

My current 3-paragraph "artist's statement" –

I've always loved glass, the colors are
like the colors in dreams, a vividness and translucence nothing on
earth can match. When I realized even my dinner plates and coffee
mugs were glass, I decided to learn how to do stained glass.

Working with glass feeds me life: back
aches go away, fatigue disappears. It's the doing I love, even more
than enjoying the resulting pieces, so I pursued getting better at
doing glass by studying with glass professionals in three countries,
including private instructions in Britain in flat glass work and
lessons in Canada in three dimensional stained glass constructions.

The best part? Hard to say, but
there's magic in the moment you take a carefully prepared piece of
glass, grasp it between two special pliers, and it breaks just the
way you planned! I love foiling, the soldering is satisfying, but
controlled breaking of glass along the score line is sheer magic. And
then I get to hold up the intentionally shaped piece to the light and see the
colors of dreams, in real life!

     Thanks Wayne, new experience for me.

     Turns out there's multiple definitions of art.  When I saw one guy brought checker boards – lovely job of cutting wood blocks, glueing them together, polishing or whatever one does to finish wood, but nothing  "original design" about it, I went home and got some of my other stuff, all of it small.  She had told me to bring three small pieces, others took up a whole table, so my second trip I brought 6 more including a couple of "moravian stars."  Maybe I'll bring a few more tomorrow (it's a four hour "show" on a location near the monthly street booth event) to fill in if anyone actually buys anything.  Possible few will come, it's indoors instead of out on the street.

     Anyway, it appears by "it has to be art, not crafts" she just meant not made from a kit.  Or maybe the show isn't turning out the way she intended?  There are some people with nice paintings.