The Brothers Goodspeed Kickstarter Biography: "Byron and Joshua are brothers, friends, and most relevantly artists. The burn of creativity and the electric excitement and passion are the drive. Only recently bringing their work to the public, the artists are ready to break out and get their creations to the world. Having started with PushPin Pointillism on a grand scale, there are many genres of art to be touched by Byron and Joshua. This is hopefully just the beginning."
To date: For this project, the Brothers Goodspeed have a $30 backer and a $1 backer, with only $11,969 to go and 22 days till their alloted project time runs out. If their project has a 30 day timeline, it's now just a little over a week old.
Total value of the project pledges, should they be fulfilled: $532,281.00
The way I interpret the prospectus is that this project entails creating an original, 4-foot square, pushpin work of art, commissioned by and awarded to each one of four $10,000 contributors; only ten (though the artists have made available 30 pledges in this category), one-of-kind, two-and-a-half foot square, pushpin works of art titled FULL MOON; everything else they offer as pledge rewards in the $30, $50, $75, $85, $100 & $175 categories consists of a giclee of various sizes taken from the original pushpin rendering of the Earth.
That is the extent of their project; as a backer, you will receive a pledge reward should the funding goal be reached, but in effect, you're simply paying them to make either a print on canvas or an original pushpin piece and send it to you, S&H included, and that's as far as it goes, unless they also reach their 'stretch goals.'
Rather than sell their pushpin art in the free marketplace of art, Byron and Joshua have put together a project plan to make you as a backer think you're part of a bigger project, when in reality, you'd only be buying a product they have promised to make for the amount that they say it is worth.
Kudos to the Brothers Goodspeed for creating a project that exists solely for the sake of pledge awards and, of course, their own profit; if it's fully funded, it should prove that an artist can successfully and profitably make and sell their art while circumventing the entire gallery system, the outdoor art show circuit and web sites such as FAA altogether.
Good luck to you and your brother, Byron!
PS I should also mention that Kickstarter will take their commission payment out of the pledges before the Brothers get their take (you must have an Amazon Payment account to do a Kickstarter project - it's a bit like their competitor, PayPal), which initially will be 5% of $12,000 (or $600), and up to and perhaps beyond $532,281, which would be $26,614.05.
