The most important purpose of the biography is to capture the essence of the artist.  The second most important purpose of the biography is to present this essence in a palatable form where the reader can digest it and feel like it has not been over seasoned to the point of tasting fake and fraudulent.  Horn tooting begins to sound like just that without a little humble humanity blended into the mix.  Our goal is to present YOU so that the reader believes what they have read. 

·         YOU the superhuman

·         YOU the just-a-human

·         YOU the overachieved with certain failure

·         the invincible YOU showing your frailties

·         the believable YOU

·         the YOU the reader can approach and identify with 

The YOU that has shared a little with the person reading your biography; reading about your hopes and dreams and disappointments because you have dared to be honest for less than just 10 intense pages or so. Your biography can be effective as a useful marketing tool or it can serve no real purpose. This is your biography and you have absolute control but you really need to decide where the aim point is.  You can have a glazed over “look at me I am a fluttering fantasy” biography or a “here I am, I am a real working artist” biography.     

In writing your biography we practice a journalism standard that was common until the late1970s, based on presenting the truth in accordance with validated sources.  By using the style similar to a published newspaper or trade magazine article the trust and attention can be gained from the reader by offering honest readable facts.  Although it will be an edited truth, the biography can be informative and entertaining without being damaging or sensational.  The reliability of objective facts found in your biography helps establish your visibility in the art world regardless of you being either a mid-career or emerging artist. The information in the biography will assist the reader in establishing what makes you unique and what makes your art significant.    

The biography writing process includes a somewhat lengthy interview. Your interview provides the quotes used in your biography.  Quotes are mixed into the narrative because quotes lend believability to what is being read. Your quotes are convincing IF and ONLY IF it sounds like natural conversation.  Although it may not be grammatically correct, people speak in fragments sometimes never completing a thought or completing it 5 minutes later after talking about 6 different topics.  Of course any biography will be edited from the raw interview to complete the thought. If quotes do not reflect true conversation the artist will sound FAKE, unbelievable, and untrustworthy. Often fragmented sentences can show a stream of consciousness which can sound more convincing to the reader and therefore convey that thought much more successfully.

Telling your story from the 3rd person takes the “I”s out of the text so you are not the only one talking about yourself the whole time. It is very important that when there is a reference to you being influenced by some event or what someone wrote or said that the sources be identified. Otherwise there is NO CREDENCE.  Without it the reader has lost confidence in the 3rd person and you as the subject.  The third person in your biography can not convincingly say “it is believed” or “many have said” or “many believe” that Bill Brown is a wonderful artist… because there would be no point of reference; no sources for the information.  The writer would be assuming that all readers are idiots.  That is why the INTERVIEW is so strategically important. If the intended result is to present you, the artist, as a Harvard Law Student we could bypass the interview and mail you a questionnaire.  That way you could answer all the questions perfectly punctuated without a stutter or a stammer or even clearing your throat. The impromptu answers from the interview make the biography interesting and believable to the reader.  Quotes can be the most legitimate portion of the narrative biography because they come from the source.  The confidence of the reader will be sooner won by demonstrating the point with honesty.  Non-factual glossy information will only sound weak and more like propaganda.  Take for example the common statement, “This artist has won many awards”.  What awards? Were they important? Why? Where? When? Without follow up information, the statement is meaningless.