is grumpy an art movement?

>As w/ most of the subjects I choose to post this will be a continuing dialogue. As long as I've been doing this art "thing" the artist's statement as a component of your mature works has been shoved down my throat. During different periods in my career my feeling for this component has both waxed and waned (I can't believe I worked that into a post…). While at art school I indulged in the statement. Since I was doing more conceptual work, I think that it ultimately was necessary to have a well developed statement 'cuz there wasn't much in front of you. Joking aside, I thoroughly enjoyed the cerebral introspective nature of writing a statement.

I still write a great deal about my work, but my feeling about other artist's statements or more exactly how they're describing their work as well as what their work is about has drastically changed. I'm not sure if it's because of my hiatus from the art scene, or because my perception of art was altered post 9/11, but some people sicken me. I'm really working hard to get a handle on this since I've been so trained, but I'm having varying levels of success. On one hand I know like myself that you make art for a reason, and whatever the reason may be, it is essential to you and that's all that matters. But I'm having trouble w/ statements that are so focused on something that seems insignificant (to me of course), narrow minded and ridiculously self-serving that it gives the impression that they're living in some fantasy world, unaware of their surroundings. You do notice that I clarified that it's my opinion and that is it. I have to be able to see that the artist may be using their art and their focus as a way of dealing w/ something quite significant. There's always another way that you have to look at something, and I guess that's maturity for you. I was happier when I just spouted my mouth off and dealt w/ the consequences later.

It's obvious that I'm struggling w/ my own art, so this is more than likely a mirror of that struggle in that I feel that my work isn't as "high" as I was taught to produce at the Corcoran. Regardless, it is the work I'm producing (or not), and I have to go w/ it.