We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful April Behnke. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with April below.

April, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I’m still learning my craft and I don’t believe that ever ends.

I see craft as both technical and mental. The technical side has come easier to me because I’ve enjoyed drawing and painting since childhood. My skills have grown through repetition and focus over decades. Teachers, classes, books, and my artist colleagues have, of course, helped enormously with that too.

The mental side has been much more challenging. In the studio you continually come up against your mind’s limitations. I know when I’m blocked, but I usually don’t know what question I need to be asking or how to address it. When I was younger, I’d let that stifle me, even when I had kind teachers and mentors trying to guide me through it.

Luckily I remembered their advice. I now have their tricks (and my own) up my sleeve to manage it. I have to keep working, be patient, continue looking at other artists’ work, ask for feedback, and most importantly, look hard at what I’m avoiding in the studio. Really seeing that can sometimes be a bit rough though.

Looking back, I wish I’d trusted myself more when I was younger to make it through the mental challenges of learning my craft. That would’ve sped up the learning process. But there are benefits to being a late bloomer too that maybe I would’ve missed out on had I been wiser back then.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m a Chicago-based painter whose work is about building and breaking patterns. Each piece is made from layers of transparent color that follow a set structure. I then set about disrupting the order I’ve created, leaving behind images that hover on the edge of readability.

Because the underlayers are carefully orchestrated but then undermined, your eye expects order and struggles to find it, much like a puzzle. This makes looking at the paintings an active, rather than passive, experience and I think that appeals to people who want artwork in their homes that continues to reveal itself over time.

I currently have a two-year old at home and throughout my pregnancy and early motherhood I never stopped making artwork. As you can imagine, there were days where I only had ten minutes available and was bleary eyed from lack of sleep, but I kept going. I’m most proud of that because I know my son watched me continue when it was hardest.

What I’d like viewers to take away is that these are paintings meant to be lived with because they reward repeated viewing.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I love the feeling of connection that comes from showing others my work and talking with them about it. It’s deeply rewarding when viewers can read what I’m doing, share their experience of it, and offer their insights.

This is especially gratifying when it comes from those who don’t have a background in the arts. I think anyone who looks deeply and is open about what they see has something valuable to share.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

Something that really seems to surprise people is that art making, at least for me, is not really about inspiration. The day to day habit of going to the studio and working, whether I’m inspired or not, is much more important.

Progress is built over time. Sometimes I don’t even see it until way after the fact. It’s very much about habit and consistency. If I only worked when inspired, I’d never get anything done!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://aprilbehnke.com
• Instagram: @aprilbehnke
• Other: Email: [email protected]

Image Credits

Artwork photography by Ian Vecchiotti. Studio photography by the artist. Selected works courtesy of the artist and Kim Storage Gallery.