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

Alright, Benjamin thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

I am currently wrapping up my most meaningful project. I’ve redrawn one of my early works from 2015. Originally named “Flight of the Phoenix”, it held no significance. I was living with my father in my home state (Illinois) in 2017 and we had a falling out. I lost a lot of my art and it crippled my motivation to create. I didn’t draw anything else until “Handles” in 2022, which is an octopus. I drew the blueprint or “soul print” as I like to call it back in 2016. I was in a financial rut and couldn’t afford supplies, so I chose to draw the original on multiple pieces of printer paper taped from the back. I figured that I could trace the outline and color it when I could afford a commercial drawing pad. That’s what I did to create “Flight of the Phoenix”. What makes it special is that the phoenix is symbolic of rebirth and new beginnings. The act of recreating this piece brings the phoenix out of conceptual rebirth and into a physical manifestation. This drawing is a physical representation of what it symbolizes.

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 got out of the Marine Corps in January of 2013. I had to completely reinvent myself. I was lost. The military had been my identity for ten and a half years. I ended up living in Wilmington North Carolina for a few years. I was just going to school on my GI Bill and working dead end jobs. One day I was inspired by a trippy poster of Albert Einstein and thought that it would be cool to try and freehand the line work onto a glass picture frame. Draw it directly on the glass. It turned out great and encouraged me to try drawing original material. I started with a piece called “Time Well”. It’s a mandala with various subject matter drawn around the border. I just kept coming up with new ideas from there. The sense of accomplishment that comes from creating is awesome, but the process is what calms my spirit. I have a lot of trauma from life and drawing helps to center me.

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

Anyone can look at your work and say that it’s good. It’s the people that relate to the message or the artist that excite me. I believe that we create to be seen and heard. We do it to relate and evoke an emotional response. When I show my work I’m not looking at the work. I’m looking at the persons face to see if their eyes pop open or do they have questions. That’s the ultimate payoff. I would like to think that someone took consideration of color choice, symbolism, etc. I want to know that it mattered to my audience.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Be willing to adopt art into the mainstream. I see murals on buildings, but I don’t see art being incorporated to the degree that I would like. I can imagine seeing art on every building. I can imagine if we painted our cities and gave them a pulse. Not only would we bring flavor to our communities, but we’d be providing jobs for artists. We live in a society with cookie cutter neighborhoods and drab plaid colors. It feels very institutionalized to me. I believe that adding color to our culture is the way to brighten our day.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @bigrednour

Image Credits

Benjamin Rednour