Honor the Craft: An Interview with Alan Barillaro
Episode #308 | Art by Lee White
Are you living up to your creative potential? Award-winning director, animator, illustrator, and storyteller extraordinaire Alan Barillaro joins Jake Parker and Anthony Wheeler to discuss striving for excellence, respect for your craft, and the importance of choosing risk.
SHOW LINKS
ALAN BARILLARO: alanbarillaro.com, @alan.barillaro
Pre-order Alan’s new books here
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KEY TAKEAWAYS
The call for improvement does not undermine your worth; it reflects your potential.
Loving art is good, but it isn’t enough. Respect your medium by striving for excellence and committing to your ideas.
If you see something that could be created better, you’re on the hook to make the improvements.
Bouncing between multiple projects allows you to return to each one fresh and with a new perspective.
The work will always be necessary and inconvenient. Let it shape you.
Take risks! Aim high and develop the skills you need to reach your goals.
SUMMARY
Alan Barillaro is an Academy Award-winning filmmaker, illustrator, and storyteller. His career began at Pixar in the early days, when Steve Jobs could be found in the break room, and the success of the company was still being proven. This season of going all-in on a new vision, unsure of the outcome and learning on the job, left a lasting impression. Alan came to value living with an element of risk, letting it motivate him to push beyond old limitations and standards into uncharted territory.
After 25 years at Pixar, Alan left to pursue writing and illustration. He jumped in with both feet; having honed his storytelling skills in animation, he was ready to transfer them to a new medium. Now, he balances his days between writing and illustrating and views himself as equally author and artist.
As a master storyteller, Alan often asks himself, “What is the one word or pose that gets at the truth of this moment?” He advocates honing your craft, respecting your art enough to fully commit to it and build the skill set necessary to execute your ideas well. Rather than viewing the need for improvement as unrealistic or frustrating, he sees it as a call to rise to your potential. “The best always give you more responsibility, not less,” he says, and he encourages artists—especially young artists—to give 100% to their creative visions and to learn enough to honor their love of the craft.