A documentary film two years in the making, providing an insightful look into the lives and inspiration of over fifty prolific artists.
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
Hello humans in Temple of Art land! This update is brought to by Temple of Art Co-Creator Olga Nunes. Read on for a free thing we'd like to give you:
Hi guys! Things have been super busy in our humble Good Bully offices, and I thought I’d share with you some news!
First off: this project has wildly surpassed our initial dreams of what the film possibly COULD be, back when we launched the Kickstarter and hadn’t even gotten funded yet.
How did the film get so wondrously grander than our initial ambitions, you ask?
It started with Barron.
Allan and I have been friends for ten years now— jesus, has it been that long? — and he would come visit me in my caboose in San Francisco about once a month, and between me writing toy piano songs and him taking photographs we’d drink tequila and generally riff on how to make our creative ideas better. Each visit we both left inspired and recharged.
On one of his jaunts to the city in August of 2013, he asked if I would mind assisting on a shoot for Barron Storey. “Of course!” I’d said.
I’d met Barron in 2010, at his birthday party at a bar during Wondercon, but we hadn’t chatted more than in passing — but I knew that I liked him.
We showed up at a design studio and met up with Barron and Ryan Graff (the man who would eventually be the graphic designer for the Temple of Art book.)
Allan took what is one of the most brilliant photographs of Barron in existence: Barron’s face awash with bliss, clutching his sketchbook with a love that appears both childlike and fierce.
And, let me rewind here for a moment, even further.
I would argue that the film as it stands today can be traced back, actually, to TWO people: Barron Storey, and David Mack.
Here’s an excerpt of an email that I wrote to Allan and David in December of 2011:
David Mack flew over to meet Allan, they did a few photoshoots, and they began to collaborate— sessions of casual creative brainstorms over coffee, or drinks, or late night soirees. How could they join forces? What magical art-havoc could they wreak on the world?
David began doodling on one of Allan’s portraits, and near-instantly, the Temple of Art book was born. It was settled. Allan would shoot David, and their collective artist friends, collaborating on portraits together.
Artists like Kent Williams and Jason Shawn Alexander, Stephanie Inagaki and Soey Milk, Christine Wu and Bill Sienkiewicz.
Artists like Barron Storey.
…So, on a cool day in August in San Francisco in 2013, I moved lights around while Allan shot photographs and we were both mesmerized by Barron telling us stories. No: by Barron *teaching* us. He talked about art techniques and the things that mesmerized him. He began to sing an old spiritual song, and I fumbled with my camera, just managing to take video.
(I also somehow managed to put a sticker over my iPhone’s microphone, sadly obscuring the sound. Bad Olga.)
Allan says it was that day when he decided he wanted to make a Temple of Art film— a film where artists could share the wisdom they’d collected over their travels through a creative life.
I completely agreed.
Allan launched the Kickstarter shortly thereafter, and I went to go crash at his place for a while, and ended up helping out a little on the Kickstarter— and then, helping out a lot. We spent ten and twelve hour days hovering over our collective machines, figuring out ways to get this film funded.
This small story, about artists talking about painting, and art, and perseverance.
We brainstormed. In the middle of the Kickstarter, on a road trip back to San Francisco, at around four in the morning, we decided to shoot a tiny short, a proof of concept of the film.
It would feature Barron.
We storyboarded it. Allan shot it. I edited. My art-comrade-in-arms Jason Seigler did the music.
And here’s where it all changed.
What if… this wasn’t a small story?
What if it was a big one?
What if we could interview artists of all kinds— not just painters, but writers and musicians and creative people of all stripes?
What if this could be a film that could be for not just other painters— not just other artists— but, as Barron so succinctly put it, all humanity?
It was a bigger story than the one the Kickstarter had set out to do.
We did it anyway.
Allan and I agreed we’d dive in and wrangle the beast of the film, as creative collaborators, as co-creators, as a team.
We interviewed Barron and David and Stephanie and Bill and Jason—
And we interviewed Kevin Smith. Chuck Palahnuik. Neil Gaiman. Amanda Palmer. Billy Bob Thornton.
We interviewed a guy *AT NASA.*
…why am I telling you this?
On August 20th, 2014, when Allan hit the GO button on this Kickstarter, we never imagined that it would become the vast and lofty documentary that we are working on today, a year and a half later.
That the intricate path of dominoes set in motion so long ago would lead us to the doorstep of this giant idea, one that was vaster than our collective imaginations at the time could contain.
But here we are. And we are so, so, so grateful to you that you’ve been willing to be patient with us on this journey as we sculpt this sprawling landscape of stories into a something that we will be proud and honored to share with you.
Something that we hope you will love as much as we do.
As it is, we’re currently working on the rough cut of the film, and we’re getting so, so tantalizingly close. We’ve shown it to a few trusted artist friends and the initial response has been really, really good. We’re bolstered by the fact that measured against the average documentary timeline-- actually? We’re moving pretty fast. Especially considering that our average day-to-day operations involve a team a fraction of the size of a normal film crew.
In that vein, we’ve been experimenting with low-budget ways to make the film more visually arresting, and we asked David Mack if he wouldn’t mind illustrating a story from his childhood.
Here are the drawings of baby David and his little brother, and the house they grew up in:
And here’s an animation test using those drawings, of David Mack jumping off the roof of that house he grew up in:
(Yes, he really did do this. Spoiler alert: before David wanted to be an artist, he wanted to be a stuntman. True story.)
We’re planning on improving upon these animations with some color treatments, and have them throughout the film-- little moments of imagination to illustrate some of the fantastic stories we get to share with you.
We’re also at the point in the process where we’re scheduling follow-up interviews and sending Allan off to shoot b-roll to fill gaps in the film. (Just in case you don’t know-- though you probably do!-- b-roll is supplemental footage in film to help better tell a story— things like film of David Mack painting or Barron Storey teaching a class.)
AND. Allan and I both managed to do a STUNNING interview last Friday with the charming-as-all-get-out Denys Cowan, who has been nominated for two Eisners for his work in comics.
We also are happy to announce that we also have a last minute addition to our roster of interviews: Gavin O’Connor, director of Warrior (and the forthcoming film The Accountant, featuring Ben Affleck.) We’re both crazy excited about this, particularly Allan, who managed to see a secret screening of The Accountant last year. Spoiler alert: it’s amazing.
Somehow, in the middle of all this film magic madness, the wonderful Bob Self of publisher Baby Tattoo approached Allan to potentially do another book— this time, based on the nude series of portraits Allan shot in 2013.
Allan happily agreed, since the photographs got a huge response online and he was happy to share them. Artist Lauryn Ipsum agreed to design it with the help of David Mack, and a week ago they launched a teeny-tiny Kickstarter where backers can preorder the book, entitled SLIP.
It got funded in two and a half days.
Thankfully, this is a pretty cut-and-dry venture— the book is already designed, the photos have already been shot, and as of this update, the book is hovering near $19K in book preorders, and is showing no real sign of stopping.
As a gesture of thanks, we wanted to send each of you a free digital version of the SLIP book— just send us a message through Kickstarter saying you want in, and we’ll send you a digital book, easy-peasy.
(If you wanna check out and see if this is something you’d be into, the Kickstarter link is here: http://slipseries.com )
Thank you again, for your messages and cheering us on as we get closer and closer to the finish line. We literally have hundreds of hours of footage at this point that we are editing down into something that I think is turning out to be pretty magical.
We couldn’t do this without you, and we can’t say thank you enough.
Warmly,
Olga Nunes
Temple of Art Co-Creator
We at Temple of Art, subsidiary of Good Bully Collective, have decided to take turns writing blog entries to explore the process behind making our documentary film. This entry is from Temple of Art Co-Creator, Olga Nunes.
While at the TEMPLE OF ART art opening in 2014, I asked Grant Morrison: “Do you ever has nervous art breakdowns?” Do you ever escape that voice that says you’re not good enough, that you’re a failure, that you are a fraud?
To which he says: “All the time.”
So they never stop, I ask?
No, he says, and we laugh.
So what do you do when they happen, I ask.
You hear it out, he says. You hear out that voice that says you’re a failure. And then ask it to sit down because there are other voices at the table that need to be heard too.
* * *
Allan and I were reading Maria Popova’s ever-enlightening blog Brain Pickings one day, and came across an entry about a book called Mindset, by Carol Dweck.
(New York Magazine published an article about Dweck in 2007 entitled “How Not to Talk to Your Kids: The inverse power of praise,” which I re-read around once year. If you want the short version of Mindset, it’s a good place to start.)
Here’s the basic idea.
There are two mindsets.
Two types of kids.
The first type of kid is told they’re talented, and it’s like telling them they have long legs, or black hair. They didn’t do anything to be talented. It’s something they’re told they’re born with, out of their control.
Not only that, but it’s invisible. Unlike long legs or black hair, talent can’t be seen in a mirror— it can only be deduced by clever adults that say you have it.
And you either have it, or you don’t— there is no in between.
As such, the first type of kid is always a little afraid that the magical label of TALENTED might be a lie. That it might be something they’re tricking people into thinking they possess.
So they live in fear of the day arriving when everyone realizes they were a fraud all along.
BUT.
There’s the other mindset. The second type of kid.
Kids who are told that talent isn’t a binary. That if they’re good at something, it’s because they worked hard at it— and the harder they work, the better they can get. And that’s something that no one can take away from you.
* * *
It turns out, as Allan and I have discovered, that I was the first type of kid— terrified of being found out— and Allan was the second type of kid, who equated talent with hard work.
It’s interesting how it shapes the questions Allan and I ask while traveling around around interviewing people for the film. I am obsessed with how people deal with failure, and how they use it constructively. Obsessed with how people people pick themselves back up again after defeat. Obsessed with what they say to that voice in their head that says they’re not good enough.
Obsessed with failure.
Not because failure in and of itself is interesting, but because I like the idea of demystifying the boogeyman it has become. To learn other people’s strategies for deflating the fears that threaten to topple over one’s dreams.
To learn ways of listening to the other voices at the table.
* * *
One of these strategies is laid out in Dweck’s book, Mindset. It can be summed up more or less, into one idea: stop thinking that talent is a thing you are born with, and start thinking talent is something you work for.
We actually built part of the Temple of Art film around this idea:
If you want to be a singer, and never thought you were born with the pipes? Practice. Want to draw comics but never picked up a pencil? Practice. Want to be a gardener but don’t think you have a green thumb? Practice. A chef. A scientist. A writer. Practice.
Invest the time in doing the work, rather than investing the time is being crushed by your fears that are telling you: don’t even try. You will fail. You’re not good enough.
Instead listen to that little insistent voice inside of you that says: what the hell. Let’s try! It might even be fun.
As Scott Fischer said to us during an interview, growing up, he was not the best artist in high school— but he kept going. He kept working at it when others gave up.
It’s more than the idea that you work hard, and get results. It’s about the idea that talent— that ineffable trait that people say you possess when they see you are a little bit good at something— is a thing you can DEVELOP.
The next time something inside you whispers you’re a failure, politely say, “I hear you. I do. Now, if you don’t mind, please sit back down because we have work to do.”
yours in try, and try again,
olga
* * * * * *
Temple of Art
A Film By Allan Amato & Olga Nunes
templeOfArt.net
Happy shiny new 2016, wonderful humans! We hope the new year has brought you everything that you could hope for— and if what you hope for is NEW VIGNETTES from us, boy, you’re about to be a very happy camper.
We’ve been churning and finishing what are likely the last two vignettes as we dive into the deep trenches of finishing the film. The journey of this documentary has been a twisting and fascinating road, as the place where we started is a far cry from where we ended up. As such it’s taken longer than we expected— making a thing always does! — but we’re happy to be closing in on a finishing date, and so immensely grateful for your patience and being part of this adventure with us. We’re working tirelessly, aiming to finish the film by May 2016.
While that’s still some months away, we’ve cooked up these last two vignettes to tide you over.
The first of our two vignettes features Mark Mangini, who was just recently nominated for an Academy Award for sound design on Mad Max: Fury Road. He sat down with us to talk about the importance of taking risks in your art.
![[WATCH RISK]](https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/005/250/295/ab5066082d2512d07c991f90b6b1938a_original.png?v=1453784357&w=700&fit=max&auto=format&lossless=true&s=c9f873122fcaa691db51c6ecdbc4ea13)
The second vignette features a panoply of creative giants. Billy Bob Thornton, Neil Gaiman, Amanda Palmer, Chuck Palahniuk, Kevin Smith, Grant Morrison, and Molly Crabapple: all speaking about the importance of art and giving yourself permission to go out and make it.
![[WATCH PERMISSION]](https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/005/250/297/46d36789f310bf9ce278a25d3c1d6d87_original.png?v=1453784386&w=700&fit=max&auto=format&lossless=true&s=e2d9510106f2a010dc466b61061c0502)
As of this update, the PERMISSION vignette has over 220K views on Facebook, which we only posted two days ago! We are so excited people are responding so well, and if you’d like to join in and spread the word, please feel free to share these links with your friends!
The last couple of months have been rife with mini-adventures in filming some of our last additions to the film — among them, Neil Gaiman, a follow-up with Amanda Palmer, Ben Folds, and Billy Bob Thornton. We also had a few surprise additions: dancer Emma Sandall, formerly of the Royal Ballet and Scottish Ballet, and Jet Propulsion Laboratory rockstar from NASA, Jeff Norris.
Lastly, we launched a new shop to deal with new film pre-orders — and also to list all the original art we still have available! If you know anyone who is interested in backing the film and missed the Kickstarter window, or is looking to pick up some original from some of our compatriots, please send them this way!
LINK: http://templeOfArt.net/shop
It cannot be said enough how grateful we both are that you have helped make this amazing art monster possible—without you, there would be no Temple, and this crazy thing we wanted to make and share with the world simply wouldn’t exist.
So we say again, with gusto and sincerity: thank you, thank you, thank you.
A million, million thank-yous, from the bottom of our hearts, for being part of this mad enterprise with us.
building an empire brick by brick,
Allan Amato & Olga Nunes
The Temple of Art Team
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.