Art Heroes Radio

Promote your art on the radio like a pro, a conversation with Brad Aspey, Public Radio Arts Reporter

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Is radio really a venue for visual art? How can audio help expand your audience, if your medium is something people need to see to appreciate? Simply, it's about the stories.

Many artists are shy when it comes to speaking about their art, whether in person, in print or on the air. But most art purchases are about more than whether the painting matches the sofa. Your buyers want to know about you as an artist— who you are, where you came from, why you make the work, what your ideas and influences are. Radio is a great way to tell a story that resonates, and inspires your audience to identify with your work.

Online radio and podcasts make it possible to include images and text as support for the spoken word. Bringing all these tools together can make your presentation even stronger than a simple portfolio site.

This week's Art Heroes conversation is with Brad Aspey, veteran public radio announcer and producer. He is currently Interlochen Public Radio's Arts Reporter. He has interviewed thousands of people, from opera stars to jazz musicians to movie stars and even dozens of stand-up comedians. His list of guests include Jessye Norman, Bob Newhart, Bill Maher, Christopher Parkening, Dudley Moore, Cleo Laine, Martin Short and many others.

Brad has won multiple awards for his work in radio, including an Associated Press Award for Best Feature of 2008 and several awards from the Michigan Association of Public Broadcasters. His show, "ArtForms," won both first and second place in the Best Cultural Program category in 2008.

Q+A Call In Show— How do you price your artwork?

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Does pricing your work make you nervous? Are you worried that higher prices might result in fewer sales?

One of the questions I see most often is variations on how to price artwork. That's the topic for this week… call in with suggestions that have worked for you or to get advice on the parts of pricing that you find most difficult. I'll be providing some of my own ideas on how to calculate your true overhead to insure that your prices are not to low.

Welcome To Art Heroes Radio

When I was growing up I wanted to be an artist, or maybe a superhero. And everyone was quick to tell me "people just don't do that in real life, that's all just stories and nonsense."

But my heroes were heroes, so I figured that's what I oughta do too. I think most of the time, what really makes a hero is having the balls to stand up and do it anyway, no matter what people tell you is possible. Of course, it helps to study how the artists and heroes before you managed to pull it off, and ultimately, that's what this show is about.

My goal with Art Heroes Radio is to help artists and entrepreneurs become heroes on their own terms.

Conversation With Hugh MacLeod, Artist, Cartoonist, Evil Genius

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Hugh MacLeod is an artist who first made his name with "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards". Although originally resistant to the idea of selling his art, Hugh found that his ideas and his engagement with his audience have created a strong market for his work. He now makes his living mostly drawing "Cube Grenades" for clients and publishing fine art prints via the internet. Hugh started blogging at gapingvoid.com in 2001. He started off just publishing his cartoons, but as time wore on he started blogging about his other main interest, marketing. In 2005 he scored his first major blog marketing success with EnglishCut.com, a blog he started with Savile Row tailor, Thomas Mahon. It tripled Thomas' sales within six months.

His recent book Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity was a best seller on Amazon and the Wall Street Journal.

Conversation With Austin Kleon, A Writer Who Draws

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Austin Kleon is a writer, cartoonist, and web designer. He's best known for his Newspaper Blackout Poems—poetry made by redacting words from newspaper articles with a permanent marker. His first book, Newspaper Blackout, is forthcoming from Harper Perennial in April 2010. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife, Meghan, and their dog, Milo.

First person bio: "I'm a visual thinker who is obsessed with the art of communicating with pictures and words, together. I love to write about the subject and teach it. I draw cartoons and take visual notes at live events for folks such as Austin City Limits and South By Southwest. I also doodle a lot in my sketchbook. If you like my Newspaper Blackout Poems, check out my de-Signs: iPhone snapshots of signs redacted into one-liners.

My day job is designing websites for the University of Texas School of Law."