Picture yourself in another world, bright and full of madness. Larger-than-life beings hover over your head, breathing the hot fiery breath of magic and fantasy. You feel excited, and maybe a little afraid. Don’t worry, it’s not real. You’re only gazing—sinking—into one of Nick Benson’s gorgeous and imaginative murals.
A banjo pickin’ SCAD grad, Nick Benson was born and raised in Atlanta, where he first became inspired by his brother’s hand-me-down ninja toys and other notable action figures. Not surprisingly, Benson also found himself drawn to the illustrative art of comics and retro movie posters. His style, as he would describe it, is “escapist baroque stylized gritty cosmic realism.” When you see one of his murals or paintings, you get a sense that you’re looking at cover art on the shelves at the comic store, but larger than life.
Soon you’ll be able to see one of his mythical creations in a different form, at one of your favorite Atlanta bars. Find out the details below, and the scoop on what Nick thinks about the current art scene in Atlanta.
CommonCreativ: When did you first start creating?
Nick Benson: As a wee lad I had hordes of hand-me-down action figures that I adopted from my older half-brother. Star Wars, Ninja Turtles, G.I Joes, the classics. Around age four I started trying to draw them in various scenarios, but the gap between what I wanted the drawings to look like and the finished product was vast AF. It frustrated me and I’d ask my mom to draw them for me. Amazingly she always actually did it. I remember looking at her drawings and trying to recreate them. Mama was my first art teacher.
CC: What’s your creative process?
NB: Step 1: procrastinate and drink and pretend to be interested in social interaction while brainstorming creative possibilities (don’t forget to doubt your ability to create anything worthwhile).
Step 2: Finally sit down at a computer and amass a dauntingly large folder full of disorganized reference files that somehow relate to the tentative finished product. These can include photos, artwork by artists better than yourself and sometimes porn.
Step 3: Procrastinate just a little more.
Step 4: At the 11th hour, put on those sweet, sweet tunes and make something that you and the world can hopefully be happy with.
CC: Tell me about developing your artistic style.
NB: Much of my style has progressed out of necessity. Right out of college I started working for Mellow Mushroom, painting murals in and on their restaurants. Up until that point, most of the work I’d done was on a much smaller scale. Learning on the job was a lot of fun and, further down the road, would inadvertently open the doors to more personal mural painting and street art. Painting in literally broader strokes with mediums like airbrush, spray-paint and latex with large house painting brushes helped me loosen up my drawing style, I think. This taught me to focus on the whole as opposed to getting caught up in unnecessary detail.
Nick Benson
CC: Do you find yourself coming back to a certain theme?
NB: Though I enjoy “arting” many subjects, the most obvious answer would probably be dinosaurs. Years ago when they were doing BeltLine construction I painted a quick velociraptor face on a dumpster and scrawled “clever girl” next to it. It stuck. Dinosaurs are equal parts scary,hilarious and awesome. I may have accidentally put myself in a dinosaur cave as opposed to a pigeon hole.
CC: What are some of your creative inspirations?
NB: I’ve always been into comics. I’m all about the cover work done by artists like Andrew Robinson, Adam Hughes, Tony Harris and Jock. I also love old movie posters. Bob Peak is one of my favorites—I felt like he wasn’t afraid to get crazy with his compositions and colors. I appreciated his looseness as compared to someone like Drew Struzan who had a more straightforward approach. This holds true of a lot of illustrators that came out of the ’60s and ’70s. Speaking of movie posters, artists like Aaron Horkey, Jay Shaw and Matt Taylor are doing amazing work for Mondo print shop in Austin.
CC: Are there any collabs that you’ve done that you’ve really enjoyed? Who would you love to collab with next?
NB: Peter Ferrari and I have done a number of collaborative murals together and I’m always pretty proud of the result. I feel like our styles complement each other. I’ve also really enjoyed painting alongside Marcy Starz with her stupid amount of talent. Paper Frank and I have had a lot of fun collabing in the past as well.
In the future I would love to do something with Sanithna Phansavanh or maybe Kyle Brooks for some stylistic contrast. Collabs are a tricky species. It’s a little like cooking under the influence. Take two ingredients that shouldn’t go together and see what happens. It might be awful. It might be the most goddamn delicious thing you’ve ever had.
CC: What’s up next for you?
NB: Recently, Brock Scott, an artist and frontman of the local band Little Tybee, approached me about designing a rendition of the Norse mythological tree of life and its nine realms for the back room of Argosy in East Atlanta. Rough sketches by Jason Kofke were brought to me and I picked up the project from there. Now that my illustrations are completed, Brock is constructing an 8-foot wall piece that’ll be made up of various types of laser-cut wood. I’m excited too see our combined efforts come together. In the future I’d like to focus on making a more cohesive body of work. Up to this point my work has been pretty all over the place.
CC: Thoughts on the Atlanta art scene?
NB: At times in my life when I’ve moved away from Atlanta I miss aspects of the art scene around here, like how excited most artists are to share their work and their thoughts, and how open the city is to public art. Many galleries and neighborhoods have events that specifically feature local art and artists. They’re taking an inherently solitary activity—visual art—and turning it into a social gathering where you see all your friends. I know there are plenty who would disagree with me, but I feel like overall it’s a pretty inclusive and diverse web that’s being weaved here. Though being totally honest, I rarely think about the art scene here, it’s better to just experience it.
CC: What do you listen to, read and watch?
NB: Game of Thrones. Also I consume way too many podcasts. I think I may have depleted the internet of its supply. As far as music goes, I love anything with a little twang to it—classic country, bluegrass. I like to work to ’70s elevator music. Stuff like the theme song to Taxi. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I wish Lorde was new again, don’t you? I miss those days. I bet they play Lorde in elevators.
You can view more of Nick Benson’s work in his portfolio.
