Illustrators are storytellers who synthesize thousands of words into just a few images, or even a single frame. We recently invited three prominent local illustrators to tell stories about drawing for a living, in the first live recording of our Cut & Paste arts and culture podcast.
Nearly 100 people showed up to hear our guests — Washington University professor John Hendrix and his former students Fox Smith and Vidhya Nagarajan — talk about the ups and downs of their profession.
Emerging themes included: persistence, patience and the fact that almost every failure has a funny side.
Here’s some of what you’ll hear in the podcast:
- Vidhya Nagarajan, joking about the anxiety of having no professional assignments during her first few months after graduation: “[I worried] Am I going to be living in a box?”
- Fox Smith on working with clients: “Even when we do come out with basically the ‘Mona Lisa’ of illustrations on the first go, many times the clients may not see the vision.”
- John Hendrix on how we've all embraced the concept of a "narrative": “If you had to sit down and write a story about the Nike story, you would probably do it. Well, you would: just do it.” (Cue the groans.)
Look for new Cut & Paste (#cutpastestl) podcasts every few weeks on our website. You can also view all previous podcasts, which focus on a diverse collection of visual and performing artists, and subscribe to Cut & Paste through this link.
Follow Willis and Nancy on Twitter: @WillisRArnold and @NancyFowlerSTL
Please help St. Louis Public Radio find artists to feature on Cut & Paste. Tell us which artists and cultural themes deserve a closer look.
