April 30, 2009
probably my best interview ever…
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Mark McGuinness interviewed me recently over at the Lateral Action blog. Probably my best interview ever. A huge amount of what I’ve been thinking about lately somehow managed to make it onto the page. For example:
2. A lot of artists and creative types see marketing as an evil necessity — or just plain evil. What would you say to them?
“Artists cannot market” is complete crap. Warhol was GREAT at marketing. As was Picasso and countless other “Blue Chips”. Of course, they’d often take the “anti-marketing” stance as a form of marketing themselves. And their patrons lapped it up.
The way artists market themselves is by having a great story, by having a “Myth”. Telling anecdotal stories about Warhol, Pollack, Basquiat, Van Gogh is both (A) fun and (B) has a mythical dimension… if they didn’t, they wouldn’t have had movies made about them. The art feeds the myth. The myth feeds the art.
The worst thing an artist can do is see marketing as “The Other”, i.e. something outside of themselves. It’s not.
Thanks Mark! I enjoyed that.
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Tags: Lateral Action, Lateral Action Blog, Mark McGuinness
This post reminded me a little of this quote. What they’re saying is not entirely the same, though the last line of your quote from the interview has something in common with the following.
Robert White, ‘Damaged Archangel’, Australian Book Review, February 2007:
“What is a ‘literary life’? The phrase is invitingly open. Some writers seem to live their lives with a studied circumspection, as if creating a work of art. Everything is crafted to present only what the writer wishes to reveal, exactly as in creating a literary work. Oscar Wilde and Jack Kerouac may seem odd bedfellows, except in this one regard. Oscar’s bon mots and flamboyantly witty social gestures mirror those of his written personae, to the extent that his life is his art and is art is his life, exactly as he almost said. Kerouac’s crucial discovery may have been that getting ‘on the road’ could lead not only to a bestseller that influenced a generation, but that it could also shape the perception of his life, where the public and private became synonymous. […] For both Wilde and Kerouac, ‘style’ is the word that links the literary and the life.“
The life, I suppose, is in many ways a part of the marketing. And it is indeed inseparable from the art.
Thanks for a killer interview Hugh.
A pleasure to have you as a guest at Lateral Action — you’re welcome back any time!
Too right, Hugh.
Maybe marketing is tough for artists who have nothing to say — in which case…
There is a serious part to this though — if anyone can’t face marketing their stuff then perhaps they haven’t found the right expressive ‘voice.’ So they should keep ‘working their ass off’ at it until they do.
That interview contains an entire course in marketing for the creative entrepreneur. Let’s hope the right people are paying attention.
Hugh:
I agree with what you are saying here and will definitely go check out the whole interview.
One thing that just keeps bouncing around in my head is this, “The way artists market themselves is by having a great story, by having a “Myth”.“
The thing I keep going round with is the concept of whether these stories or myths that help the “marketing-savvy” artists use are conscious decisions or just them? And, if it’s simply people flocking to them because of who they are, rather than a conscious decision they make, does this go far past marketing?
The challenge, in my mind, comes for artists who want to market themselves. Can they decide on a story, or are they out of luck if their life doesn’t easily lend itself to a story that resonates with people?
Kevin
I love your sweary cartoons so much! I wish I could have this one as a desktop background for my last month of work.
Thanks for the interview and the whole Lateral Action thing, not to mention inspirational doodles and such. All of you are awesome.
Coming from a creative background, it was difficult to swallow and digest the need for marketing. It took a while to learn that your great idea doesn’t matter if you can’t get it out to the right people. In fact, great ideas are sometimes the easy part. Executing and communicating it to the right people in the right way is often the bigger journey.
Imagine creating the best board game ever for two people, but you can’t explain to anybody who has time how to play. All of a sudden, your board game sucks. Learn how to solve the communication problem and your board starts to rock.
agreed with you hugh
Great interview, Hugh! I’m really looking forward to your book.
–Paul.