Lapis wrote:
I am the most amazing model person in the entire world! worship me!

Damn you for stealing my lines!!

wait let me add this

Lapis wrote:
I am the most amazing model person in the entire world! worship me!

The same goes for most women here ... just because they like to be admired and
photographed, or perhaps have a photo or two published in Penny Saver mag or such ..
call themselves 'MODEL'

FYI .. I do think you are a great figure MODEL by the way

Brian Diaz wrote:
Overblown artists' statements are the norm.  Do you expect people to say, "My work isn't all that good," when they're trying to sell prints in a gallery?

Sure. Here is mine.

I love taking pictures.

I desperately want to compose some lofty, transcendental, pompous-art-snob statements about the nature of my "work" and what it means, and the intrinsic value of my visual contributions to the world. But I derive too much pleasure from photography to even call it work. I like to phone my models and say "let's play" instead.

I don't even like to be called an artist. I was born and raised in the Midwest. To Midwesterners, an "artist" is Michelangelo or DaVinci. When you come from a blue-collar, working-class family, to call oneself an "artist" is a rather elitist and conceited thing to say. They are just photos, not the Sistine Chapel, after all. The closest I can come to being an "artist" is to simply say that I enjoy being "creative" and leave it at that.

In the end, it doesn't matter if the terminolgy attributed to my photography is "work" or "play" or if I am an "artist" or a "wanna-be hack" or whatever. All that matters to me is that I love taking pictures. That enjoyment doesn't change, no matter what labels are placed upon the process.

It's just fun.

If the people in my photos have a good time posing, and people who look at my photos enjoy what they see, then that is good enough for me.

It's up on my site:
http://www.ericmuss-barnes.com/bio.asp

Lapis wrote:
I am the most amazing model person in the entire world! worship me!

Oh, Lapis.  We already do.

Eric Muss-Barnes wrote:
Sure. Here is mine.

I like that.  It has personality.

Eric Foltz wrote:
In my experience, it works the same way with "studio" names. The more pretentious the name, the more ordinary the images. If your images are good, you don't need some hokey name to suck people in.

Eric Foltz

DAMN.  i hope this dont mean me!?!

é·lan  1. Enthusiastic vigor and liveliness.  2. Distinctive style or flair.
3. Ardor inspired by passion or enthusiasm.

n 1: a feeling of strong eagerness (usually in favor of a person or cause); "they were imbued with a revolutionary ardor"; "he felt a kind of religious zeal" [syn: ardor, ardour, zeal] 2: distinctive and stylish elegance; "he wooed her with the confident dash of a cavalry officer" [syn: dash, flair, panache, style] 3: enthusiastic and assured vigor and liveliness; "a performance of great elan and sophistication"


that being said , i want to keep my profile as humble as possible, so i think i'll just post the following..... what do you think?

With every image and vision
I express myself as a member of a higher community
I have forgotten how to walk and speak
I am on the way toward flying into the air, dancing
My very images express enchantment
I feel myself a God
Supernatural images emanate from me
I walk about enchanted
In ecstasy like the Gods I saw walking in my dreams
I am no longer an artist
I have become a work of art

i think it simplely quaint, yet sublty effective? no?

Brian Diaz wrote:
Overblown artists' statements are the norm.  Do you expect people to say, "My work isn't all that good," when they're trying to sell prints in a gallery?

Although I do like Eric Muss-Barnes' post, Mr. Diaz is correct and unfortunately hype and hyperbole have indeed become the norm, especially where a piece of trash is now called "found art" and given an incredibly pretentious name which then brings in big bucks by someone who wants to own an expensive piece of art...... (and I typed that all in one breath too!)

Try to pick up some turtle neck sweaters and corduroy sports jackets with leather elbow patches also.  Look distant and petulant at the gallery opening. 

Bank all the proceeds.

Eric Muss-Barnes wrote:
The closest I can come to being an "artist" is to simply say that I enjoy being "creative" and leave it at that.

I referred to myself once as a "painter" and got offers to do 3 houses, a couple of fences and a retail shop.

ROTFLMAO

Studio36

ELAN IMAGE STUDIO wrote:
With every image and vision
I express myself as a member of a higher community
I have forgotten how to walk and speak
I am on the way toward flying into the air, dancing
My very images express enchantment
I feel myself a God
Supernatural images emanate from me
I walk about enchanted
In ecstasy like the Gods I saw walking in my dreams
I am no longer an artist
I have become a work of art

This is perfect!!!  Now click on the avatar and get babes in bikinis.

Dreams To Keep wrote:
Try to pick up some turtle neck sweaters and corduroy sports jackets with leather elbow patches also.  Look distant and petulant at the gallery opening. 

Bank all the proceeds.

AHHH So *THAT'S* what I did wrong!

*Hang's head in button up shirt, jeans, and brown barn-coat wearing, friendly looking, smiling, self amused shame*

How were they to even know I was the artist????

Ivan123 wrote:
OK, we mustn't be rude, in public anyway, so we all have to make our own little PRIVATE lists.  But I recently have noticed on some photographer's portfolios that the "About Me" sections is what amounts to a self-description of the work, telling me is it innovative, unique, artistic, sometimes even "edgy," but, all-in-all, it is blow-your-mind awesome.  OK, so with great expectation, I click the avatar, get to the page and am so overwhelmed with boring photos my brain immediately shuts down in self-protection mode and I bruise my nose when my head falls forward onto the keyboard.  My cat usually revives me.  If you have to tell me your photographs are really, REALLY great, something is missing.

Brian Diaz wrote:
Do you expect people to say, "My work isn't all that good," ...

We sooo wanted to put that in ours.

Eric Foltz wrote:
In my experience, it works the same way with "studio" names. The more pretentious the name, the more ordinary the images. If your images are good, you don't need some hokey name to suck people in.

Uh oh, I guess I'm in trouble...

Lapis wrote:
I am the most amazing model person in the entire world! worship me!

With all your posting and the images on your site, you do live up to your muse status.  Do you really want to limit yourself to "person"?

Lapis wrote:
I am the most amazing model person in the entire world! worship me!

With all your posting and the images on your site, you do live up to your muse status.  Do you really want to limit yourself to "person"?

Lapis wrote:
I am the most amazing model person in the entire world! worship me!

With all your posting and the images on your site, you do live up to your muse status.  Do you really want to limit yourself to "person"?

Lapis wrote:
I am the most amazing model person in the entire world! worship me!

OK, sounds fair enough

Ivan123 wrote:

This is perfect!!!  Now click on the avatar and get babes in bikinis.

how dare you ivan!...lol Babes in bikini's on my port?  me? never,,, i got  boobies tho!?! lol

wirehead arts wrote:
I hate writing statements.  I'm always worried that I'll sound like an egocentric twit, but, at the same time, I don't want to have a artist statement that says "My work is crap.  Go away."

Although there is something to be said for simplicity

Sadly they are the norm for most who show in galleries.
I've made peace with seeming like an egocentric fool - most people recognize that they're writing a marketing tool, not a glimpse into their true soul.

wirehead arts wrote:
I hate writing statements.  I'm always worried that I'll sound like an egocentric twit, but, at the same time, I don't want to have a artist statement that says "My work is crap.  Go away."

Same here. But like someone said, it's marketing.