The dry spot on my porch created by the New York Times - Echo Park, Calif. 2006

Being accountable totally blows. The fact that some people think you should be responsible for the things you say and do is one of the more frustrating things about not being five years old. So it’s a shame that more artists aren’t five. Instead they are often hormonally realized adult human beings. They have fully developed frontal lobes that hold them accountable for their actions, artistic or otherwise.

Some artists resist accountability, at least on paper or in interviews. Or in any public venue. Or at home. Some people might think that it is noble, or at least respectable, to claim that your work either doesn’t need or would be ill-served by being bound to a statement. I suppose that’s fair, but is operating on the assumption that people probably don’t care for any supplemental insight into the work. Which is probably also fair.

It is so easy to write a bad statement, even for a great body of work, that it is something that most people have come to expect and resent. Nobody likes to be told what to do–especially hormonally realized adult art patrons–and too often an artist’s statement will tell you how you are experiencing the work. “This blog post forces you to consider your position as a spectator in relation to an art-language-loop.” Right?

I write about my work constantly, via email with other photographers, in “actual” statements, or in notebooks when I am in the middle of a project. It literally is a different language with which to approach and consider what I am doing and I find it a very necessary component to understanding and advancing my work. I also appreciate insightful, informative and helpful statements from other artists. Even more so, I appreciate the schadenfreude experience that comes with reading a truly bad, self-important statement that is neither enlightening or useful in any way.

Starting either later today or tomorrow I am going to start posting statements as I find them. Out of respect and fear I will not comment on them. I will not point out which one made me pee my pants, or the one that originally inspired me to continually write about my work. I originally wanted to be funny about the whole thing, with a grading system that was named with a hilarious acronym. Introspection and counsel reminded me that to be respectful isn’t a bad thing.

So here’s to the glory of lobes and accountability.