We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ben Blount a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Ben, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

One of my more meaningful projects was an opportunity I had to create a public installation at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts. It was coming on the heels of the summer of 2020 and the conversations around racism and the catalyst of George Floyd’s murder. This installation is titled Eyes Wide Shut, and consists of a series of 140 letterpress printed posters. Each poster is black ink on white paper with declarative statements about white supremacy. “White supremacy is tenacious.” “White supremacy is laughable.” “White supremacy is calculated.” “White supremacy is hot garbage.” There are 18 different phrases that are repeated throughout the piece. The public message that coincided with a national conversation in the home of George Floyd felt very meaningful and powerful to me. The piece was installed at the MCBA just days after the insurrection at the Capitol in Washington DC and got an immediately positive response from passersby as the posters were being hung.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I was born and raised in Detroit and have lived all around the midwest. I’ve lived just north of Chicago in Evanston, Illinois the last 10 years. I am an artist, designer and letterpress printer. My primary work is letterpress printed poster and artists’ books printed on a press from the 1950s. I use this old technology of relief printing with wood and metal type pressed into paper to create new work and share ideas. It’s a very hands-on medium that includes mixing ink, hand-setting type and cranking prints one by one through this heavy machinery.

I work mostly typographically, using words and language to tell stories and present ideas about race, culture and history. I found my way to letterpress printing and the book arts through graphic design. I studied graphic design in college and for as long as I’ve been making things have been attracted to story telling. As a kid, it was comic books and comic strips and later the story telling in rap music and television.

I worked for several years as a designer and art director in Chicago before being introduced to letterpress printing. I printed my first piece, a Paul Laurence Dunbar poem, at an evening class at Columbia College Chicago taught by Mary Kennedy. I was immediately hooked. From there, I went on the earn my MFA in Interdisciplinary Book and Paper Arts in their Center for Book and Paper Arts. Over time, and with the help, influence and encouragement from lots of friends and fellow printers, I began to acquire equipment and build my current studio. I create, build, and print at MAKE, my storefront studio in Evanston’s West Village Neighborhood. I do design work for like-minded folks, commissioned prints and a host of self-initiated projects. The studio also a meeting place for events, happenings and interesting conversations. When not at the studio, I work as an art director and travel around the country engaging in print and design through workshops and lectures.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect for me is the creative act. Taking a thought, an idea from my head, and turning it into something tangible that people can interact with is really magical. It’s personally fulfilling to create—to be able to express an idea and have it live in the world outside of yourself. Beyond that, seeing the impact a piece can have on an audience or individual is really powerful. It’s interesting to hear another person point of view on a piece, how they read it, what they take from it. The work has a life of its own once it’s out of my hands. To see someone be moved to act, to question, to think differently, or even feel something after interacting with a piece of my work is very rewarding.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

One resource that I didn’t know would be such an important part of my journey is the print community. Printmakers are generous with their time, materials and energy. I’ve been helped along way by friends, classmates, instructors and printers of every sort. You of course learn through classes and by doing, but it’s been other printers advice and instruction that have been the most helpful. I am learning more and more to reach out and ask for help and it’s been very impactful for my growth as a maker and printer.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.benblount.com
• Instagram: @blountben
• Other: other websites: my shop: blountobjects.com my chocolate bar project: unfairsharebar.com

Image Credits
Becca Heuer (for images of me)