"It Was A Cold,Blustery Day, All Day!"

Good "Cyber" Monday, all bodies!

The goldfinches are back. Guess I better check the feeder!

I finally got something completed yesterday while the Saints were losing. This painting is, in sketch form, one I started at the World War Two museum airshow under the protection of the gigantic B-29's wing.

It was a cold, blustery day, all day!

On the Sunday of the Three Rivers Art Festival, November 12th, I decided to bring my easel and attempt to finish the painting, demo-style, but all I did was smear the paint in transit home that evening.

Anyway, I finally finished and am pretty happy with the 9"x12" oil painting of a Navy C-45 transport named,"Texas Doll."

First cup...

"Just Be Glad!"...

C'est La Vie!

Good Sunday morning, y'all.

I'm early this morning for a change.
I don't see why not. I'm sitting here with that old matchbox hole trying to figure out exactly what I accomplished yesterday. I slept a lot!

Brings to mind when my dad use to say things with a bit of a twinkle in his eye that I should be grateful for having shoes with no holes in them. Though I know it was probably true that he experienced stuffing paper in his shoe to keep the dirt and water out, in hindsight, he could always make light of such things. 

My retort was, sardonically,"Sounds like a pulp fiction to me, Dad!"

But nowadays, especially since it nears Thanksgiving, we all need to be a bit more grateful. Thinking rather disgustedly at all the nothing I did yesterday, dad words ring true.

Be glad you could take a nap. Many people can't sleep. 

I did pay a bill and begrudgingly drove it into town. Again, dad's mantra reverberated. "Be glad you have money to pay it. Many folks are robbing Peter to pay Paul. 

I know, dad, and a car with gas in it to take to town.

I managed to take the dog for a walk 'cuz I felt I needed to do something. Be glad that you have a dog that demands you get your fat ass out and walk. 

Be glad that you can walk! Some folks wish they could.

Naturally, as it always occurs in nature, naturally, my walk shows me all the branches and weeds that need to be addressed. Well, be glad you have a really nice home and weeds to pull out. Many people only have concrete!

Leaning over to grab a few chinese tallo saplings that are not native to Louisiana and yank them out of the ground, my hair drops down over my face. I know, I know, I need a hair cut and... 

Okay, okay, I get it. I'll be glad that I still have hair to cut!

Pouring my first grateful cup...

Copyright 2017/Ben Bensen III

"Aircraft Paintings And Sketches At The Three Rivers Art Festival"

Honoring the vets!

"In Our Own Back Yards...

The humble elm...

Good late morning Monday, y'all.

Well, I'm back home and trying my best to get to work in the studio. I'm quite happy with the progress on my spine and SI joint. Started a "relationship" with a Rolfer. She's a bit "ah-oom" like, but she seems very good at what she does.

So funny...

My dad used to have fun whenever he went on trips to various places. He loved to ask simple questions of the citizens of each fair city he visited. He would ask a desk clerk directions to a restaurant that the clerk might recommend, but didn't know how to get there. He'd ask directions at gas stations, grocery stores, restaurants, and any info on points of interest he had read about.

He was amazed at how little people who should know know little or nothing about where they lived.

"Excuse me ma'am, he asked with a smirk on his face, "you come to work here everyday but you don't know the address?"

I was so astounded by the color of fall in Denver, that I just had to pick some leaves off certain trees to ask the natives if they knew the names of the trees the leaves came from. I asked my doctor. I asked his administrator. I asked a waitress at the local Perkins restaurant.

I inquired at the hotel front desk, I asked a jogger returning from an early morning jaunt, a photographer at a state park...

No one seemed to know.

Good thing I didn't ask anyone for the official state bird, or flower or even where the state capital is.

Finally, three days later, I passed by two hikers who were originally from Memphis, TN, but have lived in Denver for over twenty years.

"Oh yeh, the oval, kinda heart shaped leaf is from the cottonwood and those other two leaves, one that is yellow and the one that is red is from the same tree... the elm!"

Wow. As I thanked her for the info and told her a little story about my quest, I laughed and just had to involuntarily smirk at the answer.

Dad was right about how truly little we know about our own back yards.

First late morning cup of CDM...

"You Got Lucky Babe..."

C.F. Payne's illustration of TP got me thinking again of the song,"You Got Lucky!" That smirk that he painted on Tom brings to mind how many of his songs had a twist to it. Of all the great songs in his catalog of songs, "You Got Lucky" is one that really is my favorite. It exposes the main character's weakness very subtlely.

Seems on the surface, the guy is telling his girlfriend where to go... lyrically. But, the synthesizer and the warped guitar ride tell a different tale. Also, I'm a sucker for a minor chord and this song is full of them.

Male braggadocio... "You got lucky babe, You got lucky babe, When I found you!"

It's not so much that the man's ego and pride is hurt as it is his unwillingness to accommodate his lady's needs/ concerns. It comes off as a "take it or leave it" approach to a relationship.

I love the nuances in this song and always look to hear what the music is saying long before I understand all the words. Lou Reed's, "Take A Walk On the Wild Side" is another great example. Randy Newman is another one who loves turning the tables both lyrically as well as musically.

But, I've never read anything about those underlying themes in any rock critique, which leads me to believe that I am alone in this kind of interpretation.

I mean, just listen to Mike Campbell's wammy bar wacked out guitar ride. Maybe, it's just me!

Copyright Ben Bensen III/ 2017

"The Roses Won't Tell Your Secret"...

Good Thursday morning, all bodies!

That old matchbox has got me going again, but there's not much time to address that hole in my pocket today... Kinda!

The other day I accidentally knocked over a "Licorice Pizza" crate that held old 45's I've collected over the years. Lots of memories fell out of that box though one that didn't was "Sally Go Round The Roses."

A friend of mine, Bob Guza, and I would often go to our favorite restaurant of the month in LA and talk music... in depth. I loved it so much. No one has been able to talk music, except one person here in New Orleans, like Bobby could. 

Sometimes we'd get on a kick about one song or another and analyzing it ad nauseam and then go searching for the song trying to be the first one to find the elusive vibe and purchase it. To beat him finding this record I had to go home to New Orleans and pay $25 at Russell's on Magazine Street in the Irish Channel. 

"Sally Go 'Round the Roses" was quite unlike other pop songs of the day especially coming from a "girl group" in 1963. It had a mysterious, ominous, almost hypnotic musical quality with weird and rather perplexing lyrics. The song has the same mysterious feeling that Bobby Gentry's, "Ode To Billy Joe" has. 

"Sally Go 'Round the Roses" meaning could be interpreted as a conventional song of heartbreak over a love affair or over cheating. 

"Sally don't you go, don't you go downtown
Sally don't you go-oh, don't you go downtown
Saddest thing in the whole wide world
Is to see your baby with another girl"

But the music intimates a deeper more sinister happening than that and Bob and I had many discussions over the possibilities. A drug deal gone bad, illegitimate child, a death or suicide of a friend or ex-lover? 

Of course, as a part of our mindset nowadays, there's the homosexual aspect of the tune that is fun to speculate but has never been proven. We will never know because the writers of the song, Zell Sanders and Lona Stevens (Spector), have long since passed away and never commented one way or the other.

"Sally go round the roses (Sally go round the pretty roses)
They won't tell your secret (they won't tell your secret)"

BTW, I did find my copy in another 45 "Licorice Pizza" crate.

First cup, y'all!

Copyright 2017/ Ben Bensen III

"Sketching A Fallen Bird"...

I believe this is a swamp sparrow...

At least once or twice a year, a bird is found on the ground at the bottom of one of our windows which faces the west about fifteen or twenty feet from the bird feeder. Yesterday, my cocker spaniel found this migrating sparrow. We don't see any sparrows or finches that look quite like this little guy.

Whenever I have the opportunity to photograph and sometimes sketch the fallen bird, I do it. Jays, finches, cardinals, titmice and once, a sharp shinned hawk that apparently missed his target and hit the bathroom window. I spied some yellow and gray feathers around where the hawk fell, so I suspect one goldfinch was a lucky bird.

Anyway, I sketched this with admarkers and a razor point Sharpie.

Copyright 2017/ Ben Bensen III

"Nevermore, Nevermore... Quoth The Raven!

A red winged blackbird...

Well, one can blame Edgar Allan Poe for creating a poem that demonizes all ebony colored birds especially at this "trick or treat" time of year. Blackbirds of all kinds, brewer blackbirds, cowbirds, grackles, ravens and crows and maybe even those "four and twenty ones" that somehow were baked in a pie, are obviously up to no good.

Ravens are the worse. Those big black demons with their cold black eyes, screeching howls, and a menacing bill designed to pick the meat off of the deceased, are throughout history, considered to be evil omens, the harbingers of bad tidings!

Although I consider myself an educated opened minded guy, my experience with a certain blackbird does make me wonder. About a year or so ago, I went with some friends to paint a marsh scene off of Lake Road in LaCombe, LA. At certain times of the year, you can get some incredible views where the bayou feeds into Lake Pontchartrain.

I spent about two hours, dodging gnats, painting a portion of the road. I really didn't know exactly what my subject matter was. At the time, I was just trying to quickly capture the fading light, but a very determined male blackbird was not having any of it. He never really attacked me like the ultra-territorial mockingbird would, but it was obvious to me that he was not happy about my presence. He would call out to me with that irritated sound as he flew circles around me from his telephone post vantage point. This went on for at least an hour totally ruining my pastoral moment. I left that day with a fairly nice rendering of a telephone pole in the marsh... and it stayed hanging on my office wall for well over a year.

About a month ago it dawned on me how I could quickly salvage what seemed to me to be a pretty boring scene. I decided to immortalize the little territorial tyrant with a rendering of him. Entitled, "Territorial Rights," it will be on display with about thirty other paintings at the Three Rivers Art Festival, http://www.threeriversartfestival.com/2015-festival/artist-lineup/  November 12/13 in downtown Covington, LA.

Regardless, it seems an appropriate addition to a "Poe-etic" legacy. Happy Halloween to everyone!

Copyright 2016/ Ben Bensen III

"You Can't Fight City Hall, But... Exhibition!"

BEN BENSEN III SOLO EXHIBITION CLOSING RECEPTION AT COVINGTON CITY HALL

July 20, 2017

The City of Covington's Gallery at City Hall will close the solo exhibition featuring local artist Ben Bensen III with a reception. Mayor Mike Cooper invites the public to attend on Tuesday, July 25 from 5 – 7 pm. Ben Bensen, a graduate with a BA in advertising from UL also received a BFA in illustration at the prestigious Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA. After three years of working as an art director and designer/illustrator at General Dynamics in Pomona, CA, Ben started his freelance career as a storyboards and comp artist. His unique style of rendering, his knowledge of type and design made him a reliable and valued asset at all the major ad agencies in the LA basin.

Ben is a member of the Society of Illustrators/Los Angeles, the Air Force Art Program, the American Society of Aviation Artists, the St. Tammany Art Association, Saatchi, and Saatchi Advertising Group, and various other advertising groups.He is currently living in Folsom with a new studio to pursue fine arts painting. In addition to his Plein Air work, he continues to serve the advertising community with traditional marker, digital and pencil storyboards. The exhibition closing reception will be held at The Gallery at City Hall located at Covington City Hall, 317 N. Jefferson Ave.

For more information, please contact Covington City Hall at 985-898-4715 or visit covla.com. Find the City of Covington on Facebook! For more information on the art of Mr. Ben Bensen III, please contact him at 985-796-0972 or by email at graphicgumbo@gmail.com.

"Endless Possibilities, Then, Again..."

Top of the "HumptyDump" to you, all bodies!

All though I never got to see the little pals fledge yesterday morning, I spend about an hour with my binoculars, my Nikon, and a cup of coffee to witness the beginning of their leaving the nesting box. It was interesting to see the parents flying, fluttering and swooping up and down around the box to get the youngsters the message. One little guy actually came out from the hole as mom enticed it to follow her.

He took a look around, flapped his wings a couple of times and promptly jumped back into the safety of the nest. I couldn't stay to see all the bluebirds leave, so I later called up my wife to tell her about the show. She apparently went out to followup on the escape.

Later that day, I checked the box to see if any bird was left behind. There was only one unhatched egg left.

In all these years, I've never seen the entire family leave or where they seek shelter after leaving the nest, but we had a pretty strong storm that came through around dinner time and I wondered how those feathered friends made out.

As the wind, the rain and the thunder surrounded us, I turned to our cocker spaniel and said,"You got it made in the shade, dude!"

First cup...

Copyright 2017/Ben Bensen III

"I Was A Little Bit Nuts, I Admit It!"

Frames drawn for storyboards at 3"x4"...

We used to do storyboards at this size. Most of the 3"x4" frames were pretty sketchy with minimal color. I guess I was just a bit crazy! Clients did seem to like em, though. This is one in a series of fifteen marker frames for a client Security Pacific Bank for the art director Jeff Weekley at DMB&B Advertising.

I am posting one of fifteen everyday on my Facebook account's cover sheet. https://www.facebook.com/Gumboben

Here's a few more minis... 

Copyright 2017/ Ben Bensen III

"That Old Matchbox Hole In My Clothes"...

Just saying...

Happy Dappy Humpty Dump Day, y'all. Here in 'da Bayou, it's gonna be a beautiful day... weather wise. 

"I'm just sittin' here watching that old matchbox hole in my clothes, I ain't got no matches but I sure gotta a long way to go!"

So true.

And, it is all in the details, or so it seems. Because of my wife's new dietary concerns, I'm gonna try a frittata "quiche" without a pie crust. It will be more like an egg custard thingy. I think I'm gonna have to find a recipe and STICK to it... I never do, though. We'll see.

On another detailed note, the color house that took pro pictures of my Pierce Arrow poster called yesterday as we were lounging around in the sun at Giddy Up. Because I felt a bit guilty for spending more time creating the poster than I should have, I felt I needed to get the digital copy to the designer for printing, ASAP, but I really didn't expect it to be ready for pickup so soon. When they'd call, I would have an expeditious plan prepared.

I had a little over three hours to drive into New Orleans pick up the painting and the cd, make one copy for myself on the laptop and dupe another copy to send to another partner, throw them into some cd mailers which were already pre-addressed and deliver them to the NOLA post office.

It was gonna work out perfectly, but I forgot to bring extra blank cd's because the covers didn't fit the mailer. So, I brought two of those poorly designed plastic cases with me but not the blank cd's that they come in. When I got the original cd, I ran into the car, opened up my laptop to copy them, but also forgot that this laptop doesn't have an internal dvd drive in it.

"I can't believe it. The entire world is conspiring against me... Including Donald Trump!"

I returned to the color house desk and beg them to make me a copy. Waiting for about twenty minutes, now had me under the clock. The last pick up for mail ended at 4:30 pm. Now, it was screw the other partner, for now. He'll get his cd later. I need a copy of the original cd for myself.

I threw the one cd into the mailer and took off for the post office. I made the deadline, but all the while the desk clerk at the color house's comments kept ringing in my ear...

"You know, you could've just used a Dropbox!"

First "Doh!" cup o' CDM...

Copyright 2017/ Ben Bensen III

"Mom, Can I Borrow A Shoebox?"

Making a Mardi Gras float...

I remember when my son had to create a mission in fourth or fifth grade as part of learning about the history of California. Naturally, all the parents competed with each other to create the best mission diorama for some elementary school open house. For sure, it was a fun family project, but I can't say I was not creatively involved.

I don't have any recollection about doing this in Catholic school, but the first four years of my education was at a public school and every year around "Carnival Time" (That's what we called it in back then!) we'd create Mardi Gras floats out of shoe boxes. Mom would sacrifice one of her boxes to staple the top of the box vertically to the bottom container that held the shoes. Lots of glue, tempera paint, colored crepe paper, usually the Mardi Gras colors of green, purple and gold, and old beads from last year's booty, help create the beginning of some sort of concept.

Even as a kid, I never was enamored with all that fake royalty, glitter, masks and such, but okay, the top of the box had to have revelers to help make a concise float concept. One year, the solution was to taking my plastic, olive drab soldiers, and paint them in the colors of Mardi Gras. I used mostly the soldiers who were throwing hand grenades, ( you remember that pose!) and have them throwing something into the adoring crowd. Another year, Trigger, Bullet, farm animals and a roping Roy Rogers graced the top of my float. I tried to glue my Nelly Belle jeep to the deck of the float, but it never would stay atop of the deck and would just roll off the float.

One year, I designed the float with those colored plastic, (Wasn't everything plastic back then?) four engined airplanes which I believe I received from the throws of the prior year. I used cotton balls to create the clouds which "floated" in front of a painted blue vertical background. Back then, we kids were seriously into the environment recycling all kinds of junk to enhance our special entry. We'd glue Life Savers, doilies, pins, MandM's, moss, sticks and stones, colored buttons stolen from granny's button jar, and Scrabble chips to misspell Marty Graw!

I wonder if any New Orleans mother ever got their shoe boxes back on Ash Wednesday or ever even wanted them back!

Copyright 2017/ Ben Bensen III