What Makes A Good Bio?

Try to be interesting in general and as short as possible without leaving out major points of interest.

You can always leave a web link where people can find more if they're interested in you.

Thanks Brian. :)

i think a bio should be a brief introduction about your work - and only your work. tell people what you specialize in, and what they should expect. don't get into to deeply, your not writing a book about yourself. don't get into a medical history, a deep analysis of your family, your first camera from age 1 till present, all your awards from contests no one has ever heard of, or how poor you are and you really want sales. none of that should be there. google picks up on the bio and helps to bring people over. make it too wordy and it confuses and tires people.

don't bring up religion, politics, sport teams or anything else that would annoy people.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

What makes a good bio?

Crazy
Humorous
Self-deprecating

(^_^)

Thanks Mike. :)

LOL! Thanks Robert.

Speaking from personal preference...use complete sentences. Make sure all grammar and spelling are correct. Sounds basic, but I am surprised by what some people post. I just read one a few minutes ago that made me cringe.

The way I look at it, your whole goal is to appear as professional as possible, while remaining approachable and friendly.

No links off site. The person reading your bio is in your store looking around. Don't suggest they walk out of your store and go down the sidewalk to somewhere else where they may find out more about you. They might not come back

Avoid words like self-taught, amateur, hobby, ...

mention your work is copyrighted, but don't threaten them with violence, kid napping of pets, or prosecution if they do take your images. i've seen that. i call them copyright death threats. they go into a long legal explanation of why stealing is bad and how many fingers you'll lose if you try it.

and i second that link thing. the bio is not a place to like your face book page, or your twitter account. its also not a place to post a movie, or that slide show of images you have on your site. they are already on your site.

avoid talking about your equipment, it won't mean anything to anyone.

if you don't specialize, don't mention it. when i see people write - i specialize in tropical islands. and they post 4 things from their cruise... that's not a specialty.

in mind, my first paragraph is a cheap ploy for attention that explains this months avatar. the rest is about the work.

try to keep it up beat, i have seen that self depreciation in many of these bios. also don't list it as if you just joined a club. saying things like - i have plenty more things to upload, or its nice here, or i hope you like my work or things like that, sound sad. especially when people add - if there is something i don't have, just ask i might have it... looks sad, and they won't ask.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

"Avoid words like self-taught, amateur, hobby, ..."

And don't mention you have a "passion for..." anything.

Just my opinion.

I tried to make mine light and conversational. I'm not saying it works.

The way I look at it, your whole goal is to appear as professional as possible, while remaining approachable and friendly.

Here's one that you will certainly appreciate, then:

About Jay Smithline

Silvermine Colledge of Art 1967-1969--- New Cannan Conn. took a brief intermission to pusue music started painting again in 2000

Madras belt in Yoobawaza ,several P.H.D.s in Dryer Lint Mechanics from the University Of Zimdar ,M.A. degree in Sullen Lean & Lear Tragic Hippness from Crowley Junior College in Sector 7 ,Advanced Clip On Bow Tie Studies with Doctor Nigel P. Bratwurst at Vulgar on the Rhine Dick Hertz Sub Tweeter University . Oh the list goes on and on and is sure to impress the establishment .

My art is a portal into the rapture of Funism and self serving urinal cakes everywhere...........


... and another:


About Sal Marino

Yes girls, I'm Dashingly Handsome, Single, A Love God on my Home Planet of Zimdar and I'll be signing autographs later, so please stand back while I get naked and ready for this...[Rimshot & Cymbal Crash!] ...Started doing these goofy doodles when I was in High School about a hundred and eighty seven years ago. Did lots of other stuff too! Music (was almost a Rock Star...film at 11!), Photography (was an assistant for Ralph Gibson, got to meet the Art Elite in NYC), was poor, found Capitalism, got rich, then poor, then rich again, got married, had a son, got divorced, got poor again and now...who cares? So I started painting and sculpting again for FUN> Some years ago (c2001) someone asked me what I call this stuff...For lack of a better excuse [and at the insistence of some individuals who just love labels], I called it 'Funism'. Now, some years later I'm known as the 'Founder of the Funism Art Movement'. Go Figure? And that's not all!...Now all the 'trendy's' anti up big bucks for my stuff because they find it hillarious and simply must have a 'Marino' 'Funist' work in their collection...So you see, you too can be rich and famous...all you have to do is make something brilliant (Oh Brother, is this guy serious?) that people want and sell it for lots of Green...Or, you can simply do what everyone else does and tell me what to go do to myself...[Cymbal Crash!] But if you really want to know more about my life of debauchery, read my book, 'Guy Talk, Girl Talk', an amusingly filthy Funism Book which affords a humorous look at sexual yearnings, unfulfilled love, brushes with fame and the not so ordinary oddities of life..

I interacted with those two guys for years, by the way, in a forum on another art website ... many moons ago. They apparently have returned to their home planet.

"They apparently have returned to their home planet."

Well, no... not both. Sal is here with the same bio.

Diane, I have been mulling this over now for a few years and have had paralysis when it comes to writing one, no more, not since I discovered my genuine Artist bio generator which I'm going to share with you, you'll have an artist biog of 500 letters in minutes that will rival any in the upscale art world. The great thing about it is you can change it any time you want, and it's free. At first I was totally opposed to such a thing, now I totally embrace the idea. Below is the artis biog it concocted for me.

http://www.500letters.org/form_15.php

Mario Carta (was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1960) is a copper sculptor and photographer. By questioning the concept of movement, Carta finds that movement reveals an inherent awkwardness, a humour that echoes our own vulnerabilities.

The artist also considers movement as a metaphor for the ever-seeking man who experiences a continuous loss.

His sculptures isolate the movements of humans and/or objects. By doing so, new sequences are created which reveal an inseparable relationship between motion and sound.

By referencing romanticism, grand-guignolesque black humour and symbolism, he tries to approach a wide scale of subjects in a multi-layered way, likes to involve the viewer in a way that is sometimes physical and believes in the idea of function following form in a work.

His works directly respond to the surrounding environment and uses everyday experiences from the artist as a starting point.

Often these are framed instances that would go unnoticed in their original context. With a conceptual approach, he creates work through labour-intensive processes which can be seen explicitly as a personal spiritual ritual.

They are inspired by a nineteenth-century tradition of works, in which an ideal of ‘Fulfilled Absence’ was seen as the pinnacle.

His works are often classified as part of the new romantic movement because of the desire for the local in the unfolding globalized world.

However, this reference is not intentional, as this kind of art is part of the collective memory. Mario Carta currently lives and works in Crystal River.

Mario,
I don't mean to offend, but its sounds like art critic bs to me.
Something generating a bio for you is just wrong. There might be one line that you should use as a take off point so that YOU could sincerely tell us about YOU and YOUR work, but this is a fail for me.

I tried it for fun....at least the generator got my date, place of birth and place I live correct! lol:
Marlene Burns (°1948, Cleveland, Ohio, United States) makes paintings and photos. By applying abstraction, Burns seduces the viewer into a world of ongoing equilibrium and the interval that articulates the stream of daily events. Moments are depicted that only exist to punctuate the human drama in order to clarify our existence and to find poetic meaning in everyday life.

Her paintings doesn’t reference recognisable form. The results are deconstructed to the extent that meaning is shifted and possible interpretation becomes multifaceted. By emphasising aesthetics, she creates intense personal moments masterfully created by means of rules and omissions, acceptance and refusal, luring the viewer round and round in circles.

Her works sometimes radiate a cold and latent violence. At times, disconcerting beauty emerges. The inherent visual seductiveness, along with the conciseness of the exhibitions, further complicates the reception of their manifold layers of meaning. Marlene Burns currently lives and works in Tucson, Az.

Marlene, believe me and I know your right! But I find it so hard to put a bio together, that this is kind of a statement against bio's. I don't like it to be in the third person either, but before this I had wiki description of what copper was as my bio. But your right this is the upitty type art critic type of mumbo jumbo rambling we see connected with million dollar and multi million dollar art sales. Lol

Mario,
read what the generator wrote for me! LOL

LOL, I like it, especially the violent reff.........

It would takes weeks at the shrinks office to make meaning of it. That's what I love about it!

I had to change a few lines on mine as it made reference to my work style as a sort of ritualistic exorcism, I changed it to a spiritual ritual instead. lol

http://david-bridburg.artistwebsites.com/

Shoemakers son... I need one too.
School starts next week so maybe I will do it along with my students as an assignment second quarter.

Generators are ultimately designed to parody language itself.

Dan C.,

Both Sal and Jay are listed here on FAA. Jay has no images up - probably a joke, knowing him. Sal does have images up - they ARE the jokes. Each of these artists, thus, is crazily brilliant in his own right. (^_^)

Culture itself is the ultimate language generator. An algorithm is just more contrived. But I can contrive just about as good as any generator, so does this make me an algorithm?

Okay, Mario C., I applied the Kernodle generator to your machine generated bio to arrive at this redo:

Mario Carta is a copper sculptor and photographer, born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1960. He currently lives and works in Crystal River. By exploring the idea of movement, he reveals its awkward and humorous side. He considers the gestures in movement as metaphors for human beings who are always looking for fulfillment in their lives. His sculptures isolate these movements, along with movements of related objects, to create three-dimensional forms that reveal deep connections between motion and sound.

His sculptures display elements of romanticism, dark humor and symbolism, all in an effort to treat a wide variety of subjects in interesting ways. At the same time, he maintains a strong connection to the idea that function follows form.

Mario's works are inspired directly by his surroundings, where he uses everyday experiences as starting points. He uses conceptual approaches to drive labor-intensive processes that he views as personal, spiritual rituals, inspired by a nineteenth-century tradition called "Fulfilled Absence". By giving new focus and new perspectives to everyday situations, he frames these situations in ways that make them stand out from their original contexts. Although unintentional, Mario's works can be classified as part of a new romantic movement, since they highlight local sentiments in an era of global consciousness.

Thank you Robert! Much better then the computer generated one, I am going to use it.

I have a friend who is a writer. One time I asked him for suggestions on what to put in my bio. His answer was "nobody reads those things anyway." LOL

Your comment makes the most sense, Loree. LOL! :)

Thanks for all the tips here. After reading this discussion, I just took a lot of blahblahblah out of mine and it is down to this

Enjoy beauty and fun from around the world in your choices of these galleries.
Barbie has sold creative works as an oil painter, water colorist, ceramic artist, copper enameler, and photographer. Her professional graphic arts experience was as employee or owner of award-winning Detroit advertising agencies. She served on the Board of the Paint Creek Center for the Arts in Rochester, Michigan. She is an exhibiting member of the Arts and Humanities Council of Charlotte County, FL, was their Artist of The Month May 2015, and is booked through 2016 in their Art in Public Places Program. She exhibits in galleries in Punta Gorda and Fort Myers, FL.

© 2013-2015 Barbie Corbett-Newmin. All Rights Reserved. No image contained herein may be copied, published, reproduced in any fashion, or used on the internet without express written permission.

I hope this helps, Diane. What do you think, coaches?

Thank you Diane for initiating this question and for all who chimed in. I honed my bio down to the bare bones - 6 sentences, counting the one in the quotation marks!. Now to do the same to my AW.

Photographer Mary Lee Dereske says 'It's a beautiful and unique world we live in. I'm compelled every day to make images of life as it unfolds around me.'

Always hungry for learning, Mary Lee continuously hones her craft through college art classes, workshops and the treasure trove of opportunities on the 'net.'

A native daughter of Michigan, Mary Lee now lives in New Mexico.

In addition to the great products on this site, SIGNED custom gicleé art prints, printed to your size specification are available through the artist. Use the email link to contact the artist.

** Mary Lee Dereske

Mario C.,

Feel totally free to use the RK generated version ....................... for now. (^_^)

I will collect my standard fee, only when it makes you a legend.

And SOME people DO read those things. You write "those things" for those people who DO read them.

Diane, I will private message your re the bio!