Links from the Show at a Glance:

Ashley Longshore’s Artgasms

Danielle Krysa’s podcast The Jealous Curator

Art Ink Submission Guidelines

Art Ink Podcast Transcript:

I’m a little embarrassed to say that this podcast has been in the works for well over a year… despite my enthusiasm for the big picture of this project, I kept getting stuck on all the details.

For instance, I spent hours brainstorming titles until I came up with the. perfect. name. I was going to call it Artgasms, with an equally clever subtitle: short, shriek-worthy stories inspired by art. I thought I was soooo brilliant… until I started Googling and discovered that this kick ass artist I follow, you’ve probably heard of her… Ashley Longshore, actually has a series of tiny paintings dubbed by the same name. I knew my subconscious had absorbed this title, and hid it away for future reference, and I was bummed to find out that I wasn’t quite as brilliant as I thought I was. The title search went on.

The next challenge that tripped me up was how I could possibly get other artists to come on the show in the very specific vision I had for them. I was dreaming of a collaborative, inclusive space to share unique perspectives from artists all over the world. I was envisioning a place for art lovers to discover new artists and connect to them through their stories.

The only thing I knew for sure was that this was NOT going to be another artist interview show, this was going to be a short story show and I needed artists willing to write and record their stories. The problem was, that would be a huge ask coming from a brand new podcast with no track record. Not to mention, writing and storytelling comes easy to me, but for a lot of people it’s a big drag to have to write. Some artists can barely tolerate having to name their art much less write about it.

Even the artists I know who are comfortable writing weren’t putting the kind of stories out that would fit the narrow vision I had for this podcast. I Googled the fuck out of this problem, with no solution in sight. The stories I wanted to tell just didn’t seem to exist.

I had plenty of my own stories and my own art to share, but I just couldn’t figure out how to feature other artists without putting them to work.

Then I was listening to a podcast called The Jealous Curator, and the host, Danielle, was talking about a bad experience she’d had in her last year of art school. When one of her paintings was being critiqued by other students one of them asked her what her painting meant, instead of giving an answer, Danielle had each of the 24 students go around the room and offer their own interpretations of her painting. When all of them had a chance to guess, they wanted to know who was right. And Danielle said that they were all right, and I quote, “because that’s the point, right?” she said, “It will evoke something different in every single person.”

Danielle got a C on that painting, and the low grade was because she didn’t have her own solid interpretation to share with the class. That didn’t make sense to me, and it didn’t make sense to Danielle either, she went onto say, and I quote again, “It’s much more interesting for a viewer to have a physical or emotional reaction to something, whether it’s what you intended or not.”

That’s when it dawned on me! I could share my experience of the art I discover. I could do all the work necessary to take listeners on a journey inspired by one piece of art. This was how I could help other artists by connecting listeners to their work through story.

Don’t get me wrong… I’d love it if some of you artists and writers out there would catch the storytelling bug and send in submissions, I’d love it even more if you’d share them in your own voice. That’s how I envision this show growing. That’s the big picture. That’s the daydream I’m having right now.

But, until we start sketching out that big picture, please keep in mind that the following stories are from my perspective, and my experience of each artist’s work will probably be very different from yours, and may also be in contrast with the artist’s original intentions. What can I say? Inspiration works differently for everyone.

That’s why you should also know that you can always access the art that inspired each episode right in the app you’re using to listen. In fact, I encourage it. If you use the Podcast Addict app, like I do, just tap the thumbnail image to see it full size, tap again on the full sized image to access the shownotes, and get links to each featured artist’s website and see more of their work.

So… I hope you enjoy my stories AND the art that inspired them. I also hope some of you artists and storytellers out there will soon be joining me, the world craves your voices, so write up and speak up.

Download the next few episodes to hear…

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