I Was Tim Gunn

August 14th, 2009

The folks at Bravo who brought us Project Runway are working on a new reality series–this one about visual artists–to air in 2010. Although the show isn’t called So You Want to Be an Artist (the producers haven’t decided on a name yet), it might just as well be–it’ll be painters and sculptors making slightly uncharitable comments about one another as they vie for cash and glory under pressure-cooker deadlines. The public radio show Studio 360 sent me to the New York auditions, where I walked  up and down the line of hopefuls, giving them unsolicited advice. The piece airs this weekend, and is here.

Sadly, no one was excited by my idea that the show should have a catch phrase like Project Runway‘s “Make it work!,” or that this catchphrase should be art historical and take the form, “Don’t cut your ear off over a disagreement about a prostitute!” These things take time.