Have you ever been asked to submit an interview for a magazine, blog, or website? If so, chances are you’ll have been asked about your work, inspirations and aspirations, to be featured alongside some examples of your work.
If you’re new to ArtWeb, you’ll probably have noticed you have the option to submit a ‘Spotlight’ interview (on upgraded membership only). We look through all of the submissions, and pick the best to feature on our blog in the ‘interviews’ section. So what makes one artist’s spotlight submission stand out from the crowd? Well, there are many factors, and in this article we’re going to give some advice on how to approach interview submissions, both on ArtWeb and further afield!
Patience is a virtue!
We know how exciting and valuable it is to tell the world about your art, but it’s important to lay the foundations first. We get a lot of interviews coming through from artists who haven’t uploaded any work to their website, let alone considered things like design, layout etc. Not only does this make it hard for us to understand your work, but if we were to feature your interview, people would be disappointed to find no work to browse after reading all about you and your art! Try waiting before submitting your interview until you are completely happy with your website and the work on there.
Take a look at our blog series ‘making the most of your website‘, think about whether your site represents you and your work, and that will give you a good grounding to base your interview.
Submit images – and make them your best
Remember that old saying… a picture tells a thousand words? Well, it’s even more relevant when the words in question are talking about your art! Here at ArtWeb, we get a lot of submissions with no images attached, which means that no matter how insightful and thorough the answers are, people can’t visualise what you’re talking about.
Of course, we could visit your website, but the fact is in this fast-paced on-demand digital world, people want to see things up front. It also means you are not in control of which work you want to feature – use the spotlight interview (or wherever you are submitting) as a platform to display your most exciting and successful work.
Answer in detail
Think about the end goal here – your answers are going to be published, and perhaps advertised to thousands of Facebook and Twitter followers. You really want to give as much detail and information in your interview as possible, and think about the structure of each answer. With Spotlight submissions, we always make a grammar and spelling edit, but one-word answers can be hard to work with!
Inspire your readers
This ties in with the first point, but it’s worth reiterating. When we publish interviews, the art is central in the decision process. It doesn’t matter about the medium or context, as ArtWeb is made up of a brilliantly diverse and varied collection of artists. However, what is important is that we can see a clarity within the work and your position as an artist. It doesn’t matter about previous successes, education, or what point you’re at in your creative career, but what does matter is your integrity and passion behind your work. This can be displayed through simple things, like making the effort to take great photos of your art, a considered selection of work, a great about me section with an interesting profile picture, and a well-thought out website layout.
Some Examples…
To help you understand what me mean in the above points, here some examples of some standout interviews we’ve had the pleasure of publishing:
Rupert Aker – landscape painter
Sarah Wood – botanical painter
John Jaques – Furniture designer/maker
So there you have it! We hope this helps with any future interview submissions… good luck!
