Bartman, B., in: G. Leidloff: "l o g - i n / l o c k e d  o u t", in: O. Breidbach, K. Clausberg und K.P. Dencker (Hg.): Video, ergo sum, Hamburg 1999

The conversation exhibtion and our conversation based books is an attempt to bring a new clarity to the artist's voice. Far too often we hear the artist's voice as it is filtered through the editorial eyes of one who in fact is not an artist but an observer and commentator. It is my belief that an artist having a dialogue with another artist provides an unique insight both into the process of making art and the world that the artist must exist within. The sharing of this first hand information with the public using a format that most creative people experience daily provides the viewer or reader with a new understanding of the creative process which is effected constantly by the vagaries of the world that the artist lives in. From the fight for economic survival to raising children or responding to the violence or beauty they observe, the artist no longer is someone unfathomable by the world outside the art community. They become a worker, a full participant in life. Instead of going to the office or factory they go to their studio. Their work and their passion is their art. Even the simplest understanding of the complexities of art making brings with it a new openess to approching what may have seemed unapproachable by so many people before their contact with these ideas.

Bill Bartman
Art Resources, New York