Today we’d like to introduce you to Robert Bentley

Hi Robert, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?

I grew up in center Township, Indianapolis, Indiana. Lower middle class, went to inner-city public schools my whole life. I grew up, nestled right in between Butler University, and 38th St. Which means within that 1 mile stretch, my neighborhood drastically transitions.

I knew from a very young age that I was going to be an artist. At the very least a creative. Very quickly as a child, I knew I couldn’t go a day without drawing or doodling. To the chagrin of many teachers… I know now as an adult, with ADHD, how paramount my daily drawing and doodling was, for my retention and comprehension of information. But back in those days, they just didn’t know how to teach those kind of kids. Subsequently, I was not much of a good student, and I knew from that young age, that all I would really put an effort into, was Art. Luckily my elementary art teacher, Mr. Utley, saw my potential, and urged my parents to find an art program.

Luckily Indianapolis Public Schools has a visual arts magnet for Middle and High School. As early as middle school, seeing and appreciating Graffiti became a daily experience. I was kind of an alternative kid, got into skateboarding. Around 7th grade, I started skipping the bus ride, so that I could skateboard home from school along the fore-mentioned 38th Street. This is where I would have my earliest exposures to Graffiti and delinquent activities.

In 2004 I was a freshman in high school, and on one of my run-of-the-mill skip days, I came across the very first “Subsurface.” “Subsurface” would go on to be the main Graffiti event in Indianapolis, in the following decades. From then on, I was hooked on Graffiti. Most of my free time was spent on Graffiti. Bridges, rooftops, underpasses, freight trains, etc.; you name it I’ve probably painted on it.

I narrowly scraped myself into college, I got into art school by hopscotching my way through junior college and transferring. College was probably my biggest boost in academia. I learned that if I’m choosing my subjects, and going off of my interests, I can actually shine somewhat academically.

All the while, I kept painting graffiti. In total, to this day, I’ve painted graffiti for 19 years. Since getting into art school, I have done murals and design work on the side, in order to use my graffiti talents in a beneficial way. I’ve worked many jobs in the interest of preserving myself as an artist; retail, service, even got my foot in the door as a sushi chef for 6 years. Then I decided I would look for work that supplemented my career as an artist, which lead me to screen printing. For 10 years I was a screen printer by trade, even printed shirts for the very event that was my inception into graffiti. Recently I’ve made a big leap, into education, and I’ve accepted an art teacher role at a local elementary school. I’ve been teaching 2 months now.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?

Well, no one really has a smooth ride with art. It’s a constant roller coaster, constant struggle. But that struggle can mold artists in a deeply conceptual way. I’ve had my share of speed bumps and road blocks. Due to a series of personal losses (a daughter to still birth and a daughter born premie that we lost after 7 weeks), I stopped being creative for some time. I kept painting murals, but murals became so commercial in nature, I wasn’t ever painting my own artwork. No one came to me for MY work. The burnout was real. I’ve personally, over the past couple years, set a boundary on taking mural work only breaking it for those looking for my style or giving me full creative control. Since doing so, I’ve found my work so much more fulfilling.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?

As I said I came from graffiti. That and my mural work are what most people know me for. Many others know me for my gallery work, but many first and foremost know me as a graffiti writer. Graffiti lends heavily to my personal art style. Especially my mural work. However it wasn’t until recently, where I personally feel I’ve found a proper way of integrating graffiti into my gallery work.

I think that’s one thing that sets me apart from other artists, even the very common overlap of graffiti writer and artist. So many use graffiti as a style and concept. But Graffiti is a concept on its own, and loses that meaning when it’s put in a gallery. So graffiti as a style may be used, but it must be applied to facilitate a different concept entirely. This lead me to my current open ended series,”Day Dreams and Intrusive Thoughts,” a series of paintings based on doodles born out of my daily thoughts and dreams. This brings me to another thing that I think sets me apart. Over the years I’ve diversified my artistic skill set, Because of my Printmaking major in college and my work as a screen printer, I’ve been able to take the common practice of getting print copies of your work to sell, and I’ve taken it even further by hand printing serigraphs of my work myself.

The last thing that I believe sets me apart is I’m an analog artist. Even my design work, mostly starts from extensive sketching on paper. In the age of digital art commonality and popularity, It’s important to me that my hands personally touch and take part in every step of what I make. For me personally, there’s a disconnect between the artist and work, when someone completely creates something digitally, and prints it off at kinkos to frame and hang in a gallery. I sell prints of my work, so my work is accessible at multiple levels, but I wouldn’t be doing it if I couldn’t hand print them myself. Everything you get from me, was made by my own hands. I like to think that makes it more tangible.

What are your plans for the future?

I’ve got a lot of irons in the fire. Couple of community based murals coming up. With the upending of my professional life, my creating schedule is kind of up in the air, but I’m hoping to get back on a 2 shows per year schedule with my gallery work by early summer 2025. Still taking commissions when I can, but I’m 2 months into teaching so my turn around time isn’t the greatest. Future planning for me is all about sustainability, my goals are only ever about sustaining my work, how to keep creating as long as I can, and how that impacts my professional life in facilitating it. I don’t aspire to become some master artist, I just hope to create art long enough to become a staple or permanent fixture in Indiana or Midwest art and culture.

Pricing:

• Mural Work: $900 minimum under 80 sqft. $11.25 per sqft above the minimum ($9 labor $2.25 supplies)
• Commission Work: $50 per hour plus supply cost. (Logged by half hour)
• Design Work: $50 per hour. (Logged by half hour)
• Consultation is free, supply fees act as nonrefundable deposits in case of cancellation.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/Bentley_Murals
• Instagram: @bentley_murals

Image Credits

Bentley Murals owns all visual rights to these images.