What Kind of Parents Created Me?

So...I really got into creating online because of the ability to share the interesting people and experiences that I was coming across. I have some images that I don't usually show. They're always on my mind and will accompany my other posts. We'll see what happens.

This is my father Earl alongside one of my favorite image of his, a block printed painting known as "The Line". I found a photograph of the image and recreated it on the computer and got a large print made for his birthday. You can't tell here, but he's really happy about it. :).

I'm actually reminded of "The Line" as I see places like Wal-Mart and Ralph's with huge queues of people stretching around the block for some canned goods because yeah, everything is crazy right now.

The other half of my major influence is my mother, Shirley. All my life I knew her as an opera singer and professor of music at Florida A&M University. More than that, I knew her as an educator and a student. She was always on the hunt for knowledge and was willing to share it to everyone in her environment. Also, that's not a college student in the pictures, btw. She also taught young ones in few moments of "spare" time. Interestingly enough, she was strict, but never pushed the arts on me as the end all and be all of life. In fact, when I expressed interests in computers and video games, she was all for it even though it really wasn't her ballpark.

Dr Shirley showed me how to fight the fight to get to where you want to be. How to get around the obstacles. And how to get your music heard.

Now you know.

- Mr Benja -

Malcolm X Gonna Give It To Ya

Note: I sent this message out earlier in February, but should have turned it into a blog post back then. Here it is now as late as it wants to be.

As we close out Black History Month, I am releasing "X.1" as an 8BitCubist print. It's a reminder of the enigmatic and controversial figure known as Malcolm X, who unapologetically fought for freedom from racism while in the crosshairs of opposition from numerous forces. His story is also an interesting one of religion and culture. I didn't want to do much else but make a simple statement with this one.

See, the game doesn't always have a happy ending, but must be played to completion to the best of your ability. It's also probably your favorite button.

Love him or not, if you haven't seen the Malcolm X film by Spike Lee, then you should have watched that by now.
You can find that link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FtH94TiL0I

This new print, "X.1" was released on the8bitcubist.com.

- Mr Benja -

A Print-First Development Procedure

For a while, I only created original paintings and didn't do prints. The concept behind the art required that I create original works only. The philosophy had to do with creating representations of digital works in a 1-of-1 medium. It gets into a lot of artsy talk that I'd rather not get into now, but if you have one of those paintings, I will never create prints of those. Enjoy!

While a lot of artists create prints to supplement their original works, that's never factored into my art. In fact, I would almost rather not have to deal with the idea of prints at all, but times change.

Recently, my art has changed a bit, and the message no longer demands the works be unique offerings. So now, I have a started creating prints and will be creating them more often. In fact, the message/philosophy has changed so much that I have found myself with a print-first procedure. Basically, I create these images and then decide which ones I like enough to convert to paintings. Some of the prints are rather difficult to render as paintings, so there's that issue as well.

Interesting times.

Click HERE to see the prints that I create for 8BitCubist.

- Mr Benja -

Behind The Kobe Bryant Prints (Pt 1) - "24/8"

After the passing of Kobe Bryant I was inspired to create. It just happened that way. He is one of those figures that exemplified the push that I have been engaged with lately, so I felt I had to do what pop art does, speak on popular culture.

I always think deeply about those that have inspired me, and in the spirit of pop art, I created two pieces after Kobe's death. The first of these prints is called "24/8". 

As usual, I went with what felt natural to me. But since it's the first tribute piece I've ever done, I felt weird about not going the usual tribute route. In fact, while typing this, I realized that I needed to delete all of my art-speak and just let you know what was on my mind as I constructed this image:

* an ode to Kobe's legacy

* the game we play

* the ball

* constancy

* forward motion

I will post about the second one a little later on. It's a bit more involved.

CLICK HERE FOR THE "24/8" PRINT ON THE 8BITCUBIST SITE

- Mr Benja -