Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Benjamin L.M.. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Benjamin thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

RISK 1: CHOOSING ART OVER SPORTS

The risk I took was choosing to be an Artist instead of Sportsman. I loved sports, it’s all I did from ages 5-18 in my home country of Australia. Sports is more loved than anything there, to choose art over sports is not the done thing, especially when I had a shot at being professional in either cricket or Australian Rules football, which is rare. Art is looked down upon, sports are looked up to.

Choosing art over sports was offensive to my family, the Australian culture, everything. All funding and support was cut off when I chose art, my Dad didn’t talk to me for two months. At the time I hadn’t done any paintings I considered great, I’d had no art exhibitions either. I then got into Art University and dropped out before attending one day. My parents were baffled and offended by my choices, my culture didn’t care for art, I had nothing to show for being a great Artist, but I chose art, it wasn’t a risk to me, only to everyone else.

I believed in art and I knew I would get great at it. I had the foresight to realize that if I chose sports, I might become professional, if I did, at most, I’d have ten-fifteen years playing, then retire, then what? The thought of stopping the career I gave my life to was horrifying. The body can’t handle professional sports past the ages of 30-35, but I knew I could paint art until the day I died, that was a critical factor. Art is more meaningful, intellectual and spiritual than sports, the paintings hold up for centuries. As much as I loved sports, when that career is done, there’s nothing to show for it except boring stats in books, dusty video footage, and meaningless money, that stuff is dead to me, it’s not enough. With art I knew I could make an epic body of paintings across decades that lives and lives, the money is meaningful, if the money comes, good, if not, I’m doing it anyway because I love art so much. There was no risk, I made the right choice, no regrets, I was right. Was it my choice? No, it was a specific life-mission given to me from an infinite mind, my purpose, my calling. It chose me, not vice versa.

RISK 2: MOVING TO THE USA FROM AUSTRALIA

I didn’t start showing my paintings in art galleries until age 30, the American Green Card took me about ten years to get with two failed attempts, $100k in savings spent, and I gave up a perfectly good Fiancé and home we owned because she wanted kids, I didn’t. I knew if I had kids with her in Australia I’d never leave, and my dream of being a professional Artist would sit on the shelf, tormenting me until the day I died. I couldn’t have that, so I decided to give up on our relationship two months before the wedding and said out loud: “I’m going to move to America and become a professional Artist!” – you know like one of those sweeping statements in a social situation that makes no sense at all to anyone that heard it, they don’t know if they should laugh, cringe, or take you seriously! The most bizarre aspect of that decision is that I still hadn’t done one art exhibition by then, and still hadn’t made any paintings that were great. My decision was a rude shock and made no sense to my Fiancé, I felt her pain, she did nothing wrong, but I had to do it and glad I did. My art dream won’t torment me, oh no, I’m all over it, I’m inside it, it’s real. Doing what I love is all-important, I take it seriously.

Benjamin, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I got into the art industry because I love figurative art paintings and I always loved making art. Growing up in Adelaide, Australia, I first traced and copied cartoons as a child, lead pencil on paper. Then I made graffiti pieces on paper with colored markers as a teenager, then I fell in love with fine art paintings in early adulthood when I saw the William S. Paley Collection in the Art Gallery of South Australia. That single collection on loan from MoMA in NYC changed my life within ten minutes of walking into the art gallery. It was the first time I’d seen real modern paintings in the flesh, not a book. Seeing real paintings by Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, and Pablo Picasso instantly made me want to commit my life to making art. The real paintings looked so different from photos in books, they’re literally alive on the gallery walls. It rocked my world and changed my life.

Figurative paintings, abstract paintings and nature paintings are the services I provide. My paintings have meaning, power, spirituality, beauty, frustration, nothingness, and humor, or different combinations of those elements. I seek to do exactly what the artists, bands and writers did for me: They saved my life, they thrilled my life, they gave life a whole new dimension I cannot live without.

For whatever reason, almost all Artists have stopped speaking their mind and showing their honest spirit in their art, it’s a shame really. To me, if you go way back into the history of art and you take the painter El Greco, the artist and poet William Blake, then you zip up to the golden period from 1880-1950, artists really spoke their mind and let the audience have it, pleasant or not. That’s how it should be, it’s a tradition to be honored and continued. I’m not into negative talk or specific historic stuff that nobody knows past the time, so I choose to keep my paintings mostly positive because humanity needs it, universal themes, spirit and flesh, time and infinity. I want to give to the viewer, I want to make their lives better for having seen my paintings and read my long painting titles.

Figurative paintings are the main style I do, but in recent times I’ve taken a liking to abstract art, I do those also, I like them differently, they’re more experimental, no drawing, no meaning, just straight-up improvisations. To balance it all out I occasionally do nature paintings of where I’ve lived or travelled. I do all three styles of paintings because to me, an Artist must flex his or her muscles and master different roads. One style isn’t enough, it’s too easy to do that, it bores me. Each artist is right in how they go about it, for me there’s only one way: Change often.

Having the confidence to change my art style often is what I’m proud of, I’m not playing it safe, it’s makes it harder to do, more nerve-wracking, interesting, rewarding, I live in a thriller, but I can’t stand watching movie thrillers! Ironic, I know. Making the same stuff over and over goes against the initial reason to do it: To show my skills in many ways, to show commitment and confidence, to see accomplishment. I want to take the viewers to new places, help them with life, help them get away from life, I want to give to them. Certain musical bands and artists in the past and present have shown me the value of change and how important it is to build into your catalogue different ways that are fresh, unexpected, and sometimes confusing. I love the idea of psychedelic music and blasting other music styles real loud, the disorientation of it, I love that so I can have some time to get away from myself. From this angle I see art, music and books as ultra valuable enlightening rockets that go beyond money, beyond society status, country, race and gender, we need relief from ourselves. The value of art is otherworldly and far greater than the dollars you pay for it.

My main inspiration is the living spirit of forever. I believe we come from and go back to a golden place that is perfect, infinitely better than this life on earth. Finding that golden magic key saved my life from early death. I’m here for the long run. Everything gets better in the most unusual ways. The other inspiration that’s important to me is the actual act of painting art. When I get down into it in full blaze, I’m completely and fully engaged with the fantastical and the human, I’m gone, I’m in outer space, it looks like I’m there in body and flesh, but I’m not, I’m up jumping on the clouds as the glorious sun flames through my infinite existence. It’s real life magic every time.

Dedicating my life to art means I always do it and always want to do it. Sometimes there’s no art exhibitions to paint for, so in those times I do other things:
– Books of poetry.
– Spoken word with music recordings.
– Album covers.
– Mass produced clothes, accessories and home décor.
– One-off hand painted art clothes.

Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?

My view on art NFTs is: I wish they worked. I thought they would be great and make a new branch in the art industry, but they didn’t, it was a dismal failure from what I’ve read, and from my own experience with my art NFTs. People pay me serious money for original paintings, but with the NFTs and different type of collector, they wanted them for pennies, it doesn’t make sense.

If anyone out there knows a way that does sell art NFTs for serious money, please write to me. I have art NFTs sitting there, finished, ready to go. They’re fresh and exciting, totally cool.

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

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist and creative is the act of doing it, and the pleasure of looking at what I’ve done, either in the real or as photos, both are good. Giving something to help people is very important too. Painting is rewarding beyond words, money, the lot. I can’t get enough of it. I look at my own paintings and I think YES! What’s strange about me getting to that yes moment is that it takes a year for me to get there. When I’ve finished a painting all I know is that it’s finished, not good or bad, nothing yes about it at all. I don’t know why it’s like this, but it is. Once the paintings are done they go to the art gallery, auction house or social media for exhibit, or to a collectors home, whoever wants what, tastes are quite specific.

Somewhere between me knowing my paintings are finished, then the time needed to photograph, touch up the final photo, then send the paintings to who wants them, I don’t look at them after the final photo is done, I’m making new ones to forget about the finished ones. Then a year goes by and I look back on what I’ve done and I think YES!

The other rewarding aspect of being an artist is you join a global mob that goes back through history and is alive and well right now. For my taste, European artists have been the best, American, British, Irish and Australian bands are the best, and a few writers from both America and Europe is what I like. They’re rewarding to me because I love what they make, not many really if you think of the millions out there.

Beyond the history of what I love, what’s extremely rewarding are the Australian bands that have come before me and are still doing it today. These Australian bands are all alive and kicking hard right now: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, JG Thirlwell (Foetus / Xordox), The Necks, and Dirty Three. I’m biased to them because I know full-well the limiting and small culture they’ve come from, and the big-time global culture they’ve made for themselves which is extremely difficult to do, for real. These four musical giants are vitally important to me because they come from where I come from, they found their unique way and took on the world. They win. They’re greatness. It’s on. It’s alive.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/benjaminlm7
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/benjamin.lm.392113/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-l-m-55450125/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BenjaminLM7

Image Credits

Photo of Benjamin L.M. by Al Barsky
Hoboken, New Jersey, USA
2025
Photo edit by Ajax Salvador