Today we’d like to introduce you to Benjamin Seevers.
Benjamin, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
As a child I preferred to be in the back of the line. In 4th grade, I remember looking out the open door of our 2nd story classroom, over the balcony rail, and towards the trees of the neighborhood. Hardly a breeze. The green of the leaves looked slightly dull and very two dimensional, and I thought to myself, “that looks like a painting”. I’m not a huge proponent of simulation theory per se, but it was at that moment that the ambiguity of our optical nature as humans with eyeballs, became apparent. Even now as an adult, I will see garbage in the distance and hallucinate animals until I’m closer still and the leaf and the litter reveal themselves. The illusory display in our brain has a polarity between consensus reality and the imaginal. My experience living life as an artist has allowed me to tease the joy out of the uncanny valleys that straddle the tension between these two poles.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It’s a good bet that we incarnate when we do for a reason. I don’t want to waste my gifts. We live in a time now, where there is so much competing for our attention. I want to be a good parent to my child. I want to be inspired by what others are doing. I want to be able to survive the inevitable collapse of our power grid. A social media addiction can help with these aims only to a small degree compared to what it takes in return. As you scale up towards greater contexts and wider lenses to analyze your place on this planet with, the goal of making art can sometimes seem pointless. But it can also set your practice free when you let go of the expectations for a profound career. I’m reaching a point of contentment in my relationship to making art, where it’s simply a pure act without recourse to who else will ever see it.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I really appreciate the opportunities I’ve been given here to share my thoughts about what it means to me to be an artist. At their core, I believe it is creativity that gives humanity their exceptionalism. Our ability to transform an environment, our capacity for adornment. The flavors. The frequencies and subharmonics generated in music, these are the wonders that can be produced when our heart moves our hands. This is flowery language for actions that are quasi mystical in their deepest moments. Even the most surface acts like outlining stray spray paint markings on a factory wall at my work, stems from curiosity and wonder at bringing definition to someone and some when else’s scrawls. Communication. Carving pumpkins with my son becomes a chance to teach how to bring life to unexpected forms. This animation is a nod to acknowledging the potential spirit inside literally anything. There were chapters of my life where showing my work was important to me. Where I am now is at a place of gratitude for all the paper cutout scraps on the floor from making snowflake decorations with my kid. I’ve been humbled by this chapter whilst still remaining determined to be a lifelong maker.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
Everyday I search for inspiration from my peers. I think it is important to surround yourself with people who are striving. Everyone has a skill, everyone has a talent. Sometimes I have to dig to get it out of folks, but it’s there. When I need motivation, it’s those friends who are dedicated to their craft that inspire me to not be lazy. It feels good to give up and be lazy, but it always feels better to overcome that inertia and do that thing that you want to do, that you don’t want to do because it’s extracurricular. I look to those friends for the discipline in practice, and also for shop talk. You don’t have to always have one amazing teacher or mentor. My education has been cumulative with so much coming to me in small bites from those experienced people all around me. Stay open, stay receptive, and the examples will flow to you.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.catkids.bandcamp.com
