Everyday Lives, Everyday Values Interview with Chad Hawkins, author of "The First 100 Temples."

Program originally aired on KSL Radio.

Host: Doug Wright

Doug: Today on the program I'm very pleased to have Chad Hawkins here with us. And it was several years ago at a remote broadcast that we did during the conference season that I first met Chad and had the opportunity to experience his work and appreciate it. As a matter of fact, as I was telling you Chad, that in my mom's front room we have a picture of the Portland Temple hanging there. And it has just been a joy to experience and appreciate your art over the years. And we welcome you to Everyday Lives, Everyday Values.

Chad: Thank you very much. I'm happy to be here.

Doug: There is a brand new book that we are going to be talking about called The First 100 Temples. And for those who are familiar with Chad's work you know what a treat we're in for. But for those who are not familiar with the work, lets get a little more background on you. I was thinking about that as we were talking about doing the program today. I know you as an artist. I've met you several times before. But I'm not really sure if I've heard the whole story how all of this actually started. You showed me a beautiful picture of the Salt Lake Temple a moment a go and said that is how the temple pictures kind of started. But take us back maybe even before that. This gift of art, where did it come from?

Chad: It came from, I don't know where it came from but I've most certainly always had it. I've always loved to draw and paint and do whatever I could when it comes to the arts. I often look back at what my parents gave me, one of my favorite gifts ever was when my mom and dad bought me a large school-sized chalkboard, mounted it on the side of the wall and as other toys came and went I always went back to that chalkboard always trying to draw masterpieces on the side of the wall. And that has always been my favorite thing. I always think that is when I really learned to love to draw, learned to appreciate different things is trying to create new fun images on this chalkboard.

Doug: When did you first realize this might be your, I don't know if calling is too strong a word or profession, but when did you think that you could maybe do this?

Chad: You know Doug, my whole life drawing and painting has always been a hobby. And it has always been so much fun that I thought drawing and painting could never be a career because it is a hobby. How can you make a career built around something that you love so much?

Doug: Yeah.

Chad: So honestly, I never took it seriously enough to pursue it as a career. I always wanted to be a dentist of all things. And I've always loved the sciences and I've always thought how great it would be to be a dentist someday. And I thought perhaps my artwork could get me through dental school and help pay the bills along the way. And so I started drawing these temple drawings originally to help finance my LDS mission. And then I came back home and there were more temples being built and I thought, I want to continually draw the temples and do the best I can so I drew more temples. And with that goal in mind being a chemistry and zoology major that someday I want to be a dentist. And as I was applying to these different dental schools a friend of mine came up to me and said, "Chad, who are you to bury your talent?" He said, "If you go into the medical profession you won't be able to dedicate your life to the arts and who are you to bury this talent that God has given you?" And those were some harsh but loving words I think and I've been grateful for those words ever since. Because it was at that point my wife and I discussed, "You know, honey, this really is a love of mine. There is nothing else I would rather do. And I could see possibly the opportunity to make it as a career." And so I went from doing everything I could do to be an A student and getting the best grades I could to entering into the Fine Arts department at Weber State where grades really don't matter and it is just your portfolio that matters. And talk about a new way of thinking.

Doug: Yeah, oh yeah compared to the sciences.

Chad: Exactly right. And so now I'm just concentrating on creating a solid portfolio and then I pursued drawing temples and trying to keep up with President Hinckley. And even though I have been working as hard as I can work I am still far behind.

Doug: How did your folks and those who taught you and mentored you, how do they feel about this decision to become an "artist"? I can remember when I broke it to my family that I was going to become a radio person they looked like I just kicked them. "But you have so much potential." But it was, you know art is beautiful, I don't know what I do.

Chad: Well with the artist, being an artist there is always a word that comes before the phrase artist and that is "starving". And so when I decided to let everybody know that hey I want to be an artist, self-employed and choose that as a profession and that is how I want to provide for my family, I got some people questioning my decision. But I thought I could do it and I've been working hard at it. And I had, before making that decision I have a B, C and D plan in case my A plan doesn't work. And thank goodness my A plan has been working.

Doug: Back to one thing you said, and I have several friends who did turn their hobbies into their professions and sometimes a little bit of a love for the hobby as it becomes the meat and potatoes, as it becomes the means to put food on the table, sometimes it loses a little of its luster. Has art, has this gift of yours, is it still as fun?

Chad: That is a great question. I appreciate you asking it. The answer to that is yes, partly because I love so much what I do. I think it is everybody's dream to be able to wake up in the morning and want to get out of bed and jump out of bed. And that is how it is for me. And I think that is a blessing and I'm grateful for it. I love to get up in the morning and just get busy, get drawing and creating new, beautiful images. But it is not only because I love to draw and create and design images, but I always keep in mind what I'm drawing. It is not just a drawing, it is a drawing of a house of the Lord. And to me that takes on a whole entirely new meaning of drawing or painting. I never forget for a second what I am drawing. I don't treat this drawing as an illustration or an architectural rendering perhaps, I always keep in mind that I am drawing the house of the Lord. I try to prepare myself for that and I try to make an environment suitable for such a creation.

Doug: We'll take a break. We'll be right back here on Everyday Lives, Everyday Values.

Doug: The title of the book is The First 100 Temples. Chad S. Hawkins is here with us on Everyday Lives, Everyday Values. I wanted our listeners to get to know you a little bit better. Now I want to talk about the reason we are here. And I am so excited. Lets talk about the drawings that you do of temples right now. I mentioned the one that I gave my mother. She has had this hanging in her room now for I don't know long and didn't notice in the tall pines to the left of the picture as you look at it of the Portland Temple that there is to me what was very clear, especially once you pointed it out to me, a very clear image of Christ in the pines. My mother has had this in her home now for five years and didn't see it. And when I pointed it out to her it just made the picture that much more special. You put all kinds of wonderful things in these pictures.

Chad: That is half the fun of what I do. I don't merely draw a building or the temple but I always have so much fun working into the drawing or painting a hidden spiritual image. And that is one of the reasons why I like to visit the temples prior to drawing them. I'm not drawing from postcards or photographs that someone has sent me, but I am drawing from my own photographs, my own reference material and while I am onsite I always ask the local members what is one of the most favorite things that you like about your temples appearance and its grounds and the setting? And while I was in Portland everybody kept commenting to me, "Chad, we love how the Portland Temple sits among those beautiful tall, green lush trees. And I heard that so many times I realized in my drawing that I really do need to emphasize the trees with the Temple. And it is a beautiful setting. And so with that in mind I drew the temple, the tall trees and using the trees once again I hid a full length figure of the Savior to the left of the temple looking down upon his house.

Doug: On the cover of this brand new book that we'll all be enjoying very soon, it is the Nauvoo Temple, which I think is spectacular. And you were pointing out to me some of the things. Do you mind? Can we share some of that?

Chad: Lets do it.

Doug: When people look at the cover of this book, and you've been back there even though the temple is not completed, you have been back there and again tapped into that spirit, talked with the local people. What are we going to look for in this particular drawing?

Chad: In this painting there, this painting was one of the most special drawings of the temple or paintings that I have ever done because of the historical nature of the original Nauvoo temple. And now this amazing event that President Hinckley has announced that we will have the new rebuilding of the Nauvoo temple. So I likewise wanted to make this painting extra special. And when President Hinckley announced the building of the temple he quoted, "he said that he wanted to rebuild the Nauvoo temple as a memorial for those original Saints who built the first such structure along the banks of the Mississippi". And so with that phrase in my mind I thought, "How can I make my painting a memorial or a tribute to those wonderful, faithful members of long ago?" And so with that in mind I decided to hide the Prophet Joseph Smith among the trees to the right of the Temple. And I chose the Prophet Joseph because he helped with his own hands, helped build the original Nauvoo temple to a certain point. And then he was martyred not far from Nauvoo in Carthage. And so I chose to hide the Prophet Joseph in the picture. His upper body is depicted here. He is holding the Book of Mormon and looking over at the temple. And he is not only in the painting but I also depicted the Nauvoo Temple in the painting as it would appear in the month of June, the month he was martyred. And it also depicts the exact time of his martyrdom, late in the afternoon at 5:16 p.m. The sun is setting in the west, casting long shadows across the ground and the clock on the tower reads 5:16 p.m.

Doug: Right.

Chad: And so that is how I intended it to be a small tribute to the Prophet Joseph.

Doug: I so appreciated you pointing this out to me and, how many people catch these images without you kind of guiding them into them?

Chad: Great. Well, I think people who know my work they recognize the temple and then the next question is "What do you have hidden in this one?"

Doug: Right, right.

Chad: And that is always a fun question to answer but if they don't see it, if they buy it for just the temple, in a way that is a compliment too, because it is the temple that is the focus of my art. That is the important part. We should have temples in our homes. And so that is just fine. And if it takes your mother five years to find the hidden image in the Portland Temple, heck that is a compliment as well because I don't want these hidden images to be distracting but I want them to enhance the overall image.

Doug: Right. Now lets talk about these 100 temples within this book. Do we start with the Kirtland Temple, does it go through in order?

Chad: Exactly, exactly. It starts with Kirtland and Nauvoo so it actually has 102 temples. But today if you were to look in the Almanac it only talks about 100. We start technically with St. George because that one that is still being used today.

Doug: Now, all of the drawings, how many of them will be images that we are familiar with that we have seen before, versus that are brand new and maybe only for the first time appear in this book?

Chad: There are about 30 images that I have drawn in the last maybe six months. And so although they are available as prints, they are still really, really new. They are primarily for this book project and so this project does depict well over 77 images.

Doug: Boy, you have been busy.

Chad: Busy, non-stop for several years.

Doug: For those of us who work in the news media, and most Latter-day Saints are very familiar that there was some controversy around the Boston Temple, even getting it built and there is still a little left to be seen and I love the picture that you showed me of the Boston Temple.

Chad: Right.

Doug: Because we see what it very well may look like sometime.

Chad: Exactly. I wanted to draw that temple prior to its dedication but yet at the same time I wanted to kind of wait and see what the court decides. Are we going to have a spire or not? And so I thought, well I don't want to procrastinate drawing the beautiful temple any longer, so I kind of made the spire actually the hidden image. And so it just depicts what it looked like when it was dedicated but it also depicts what the Temple will look like someday with the spire.

Doug: It is so interesting because we talk about some images, you can spot other images and sometimes you almost need to be guided into. But that is the first thing that I looked at. And when you said, "Look" I had already seen it. And it is great because we have the best of both worlds. We have the temple as it is right now and then we also have the way we hope it eventually will look. Text in the book? I think of your great art. Did you also write the text?

Chad: I wrote the text. But you know what, I've never thought of myself as an author but this book was relatively easy to write because I am not the one telling the stories. I go out, I interview these wonderful, incredible people and they will tell me all of the events that transpired on these temples around the world. And I just quote them directly, I am letting them tell the story because I don't want to lose anything with interpretation.

Doug: Right. Where did this idea come from to actually put all of this together into a book?

Chad: It wasn't my idea. Not at all. Associated with these drawings a blessing in my life has been being a part of literally hundreds and hundreds of firesides for stake events, youth conferences around the country and in different countries even. And at the close of these firesides discussing the research that I have uncovered on this project. I literally would have ten or more people come up to me each time and say "Chad, where is this written? Where can I research this or where can I read this?" And I would always say, "Well it was really just from an interview I had. And you can call me and I can give you bits and pieces here and there." But I heard so many people come up to me and say, "Chad, you need to compile these into a book."

Doug: Right.

Chad: And for many years I thought about that possibly some day but I never knew how to organize it into one volume. Do I treat it just as the Utah Temple book or the West? I didn't know how because they are always building and announcing new temples and I didn't know how to organize it. So when the prophet announced we will have 100 temples I thought, that was my answer. And I thought I would write a book about the first 100 temples.

Doug: Whenever anybody works on a project there are things that are easier and things that are more difficult. As you tried to come up with a painting and really bring to life these temples on your pages, were there any that were perhaps a little more difficult or easier than others?

Chad: Yeah, definitely. When you talk about difficulties drawing these smaller generation of temples, the temples are relatively simple to draw. But to draw them and glorify them and make them as fascinating and interesting as possible, that is where the challenge began. Because the temples, like I mentioned, many of which are identical and so to separate them from each other I really had to emphasize their landscape. Some have a unique hill behind them or beautiful trees surrounding them or a fountain or a fence or the monument sign out front or stain-glassed windows. So therefore that was part of my goal of visiting the temples is to find out what makes this temple unique, both in the temple, the angle, the landscape, the buildings around it if in a downtown setting. And then to make all these temples unique highlighting their most interesting parts.

Doug: I wish we had more time. It is so much fun to talk with you Chad. I always like to ask this of artists and that includes writers, musicians and those who actually do put their art in beautiful paintings as you do, what they hope will come of their art. And as the writer of the book, as the illustrator of this book, what do you hope people get from this?

Chad: That is a relatively easy question for me to answer because it has been the whole purpose of me creating these drawings from the beginning. And that is what President Howard W. Hunter said. He wants us all to become "a more temple-attending and a temple-loving people". That is the purpose of this book. Because we're all familiar with stories surrounding the Salt Lake, Logan, St. George and Manti, these earlier temples, amazing, testimony-building experiences that remind us that this really is the work of the Lord. He wants it to get done and he is a part of this work. Well those exact same stories are endless with all of the temples around the world, whether they took 40 years like the Salt Lake, or six months like some of these smaller temples. There are inspiring stories that we can benefit from and learn from about all of the temples. And that is what I'm trying to introduce to everyone who reads this book so that we can be a more temple-attending and temple-loving people.

Doug: Chad, one final quick note we ought to make on the book. At the very, very end it is almost like temple trivia. Maybe you can tell us what this feature of the book is.

Chad: It is. That is exactly what it is. But I avoid the word trivia because to me there is nothing trivial about temples. And as I have researched these temples, interviewed people, every once in a while someone would make a comment to me and say, "You know Chad this is the only temple that," or "This is the first temple in which" and I would always make a note of that. And I've made a list of all of these, I have about 150 different temple facts at the end of the book that are just unique and fascinating. For example, "Which temple is the only temple to have five spires?"

Doug: Which one?

Chad: That would be the Oakland temple. And one thing that is interesting is "How much gold do you think is required to cover a seven foot statue of Moroni?" Have you ever thought about that?

Doug: No, how much?

Chad: An ounce and a half.

Doug: I've always heard they can hammer that out fairly thin.

Chad: Exactly. It is so malleable and thin that only an ounce and a half of this thin gold-leafing is required. "Which temple has a lock of Joseph Smith's hair in the cornerstone?"

Doug: I don't know.

Chad: That would be the Cardston, Alberta temple. "Which temple has the largest temple district?" Hong Kong. "Which temple was built upon an ancient Viking burial ground?" Stockholm, Sweden. "Which temple was the first temple to be built out of an already existing structure?" Vernal, Utah.

Doug: Right, right.

Chad: This is a neat one. "Which temple has an actual Walt Disney film clip of a cartoon movie that they made in its cornerstone?" And that is the Orlando, Florida temple. When the temple was dedicated the Walt Disney Company dedicated a little tiny film animation of Pinocchio depicting the Jiminy Cricket figure and that is placed in the temple's cornerstone and they chose Jiminy Cricket because he represents conscience and the conscience is always trying to make Pinocchio tell the truth and become "a real boy".

Doug: That is amazing. Chad, again just fascinating. I'm looking forward to the book. The First 100 Temples by Chad Hawkins.

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