INTRODUCTION
For many years, I used to draw and paint a lot of pictures...thousands,
tens of thousands of pictures. In my short lifetime, I've done actual paid
graphic work for newspapers, nightclubs, t-shirt companies, record companies,
musicians, plumbing companies, stunt plane companies...and for countless
others (Hey, I drew advertisements for the Del Rubio Triplets!) Most of the
artwork I've done in my life has been done by hand...hand-drawn,
not drawn using a crummy, dumb computer or by tracing or by cheating.
Several years ago I was in a coma for a week (don't ask) and
when I awoke from my deep, dark slumber and returned to "normal life",
I had no desire to draw or paint again...I also magically quit smoking and
replaced an expensive cigarette habit with an inexpensive digital camera
habit, which (in a nice way) also replaced my old drawing and painting habit.
Like it says in The Good Book..."seek and ye shall find"
However, in my case, it was..."become comatose and ye shall find
and ye shall also stop smoking and start using a digital camera"
Well, here we are in 2005 and this Houseplant website where you find yourself
is one of my main creative, artsy outlets. Who needs messy india ink and cans
of sticky, drippy enamel paint? The internet is truly a wonderful thing
and (unlike cans of paint) it doesn't spill and make stains on the floor!
But still...about once a week I get an urgent
email or a phone call from someone who asks me:
"When are you going to put your own art on the website?"
Up until now, I've always hesitated to place my own whimsical,
hand-drawn graphics on the site. But (just the other day) I happened to
come across a little digital folder of my artwork on an old CD...and I decided
that the time to hesitate is through...there's no time to wallow in the mire.
"Greenwich Breakout" - the last painting I ever did - sort of reminds me of mid-period Vermeer
I don't like discussing art (ever) so I don't have much to say about
the graphics on this page. Some of the drawings are just mystical
doodlings (inspired by the works of Emanuel Swedenborg), some
of the drawings were used as flyers or t-shirt designs...there
are a couple of "Misery Loves Coffee" panels...an ironic
cartoon series I did many moons ago. If you have
questions, send an email to the main HPS address.
- K. Benbenek - July 2005
This may look like an intricate tree and fancy roots...however, in reality it's
the Divine Lifeforce gently penetrating the earth by means of an open manhole.
A copy of this drawing sits in an old bookshop near the British Museum.
Painted backdrop for Spike Lee and his extended cultural rap - Long Beach.
I gave him an old Hank Aaron baseball card as a "welcome to our fair city" gift.
I've yet to see "Malcolm X" all the way through - but "Summer of Sam" is almost
as good as "Boogie Knights" in capturing the grotesque mood of the late 70s.
My interlocking pattern-work often gets compared to Keith Haring's
masterful works of art - however, this type of artwork has a tradition
going back to artists such as Jean Dubuffet, Paul Klee, many folk
artists from the Deep South and of course Polynesian Moari artists,
as well as scores of aboriginal artists throughout the world.
Keith Haring simply popularized the "style" - too bad he died so young.
I missed a chance to see him up in Pasadena, immediately prior to his passing.
Honestly (even though his work is technically great) I think most of Haring's
work lacks that certain "zip" or "spark" that could put it "over the top"
into a more lofty and/or heavenly realm. Grafitti art rarely fully enters
the secret corridors of the inner, mystical, magical sanctum.
Two abandoned cartoon panels - some guy I barely knew called me up and
wanted me to draw pictures for his captions. The caption for the top one
was "She likes to talk dirty to her houseplants" - I can't remember the
caption for the bottom one. Me and the guy discussed captions and
cartoons for about two hours at a restaurant on Melrose (Nora's) but
nothing ever panned-out. The hot fire pit at Nora's was very hot.
Black india ink on cheap cardboard. The original is about 2 X 2 inches.
This one reminds me of an old Al Jaffee cartoon, where a Beatnik
creates some artwork by jumping off a building and lands
"SPLAT" on the canvas (in colors) on the ground.
A Christmas tree drawing for the cover of a San Pedro newspaper.
There's also a hint of an angel at the top. Could also be a cheese grater.
Another miniature drawing. Perhaps it's a shy zebra jumping on a trampoline (?)
Advertising graphic for a wild, psychedelic punk rock dance club in non-scenic Orange County
Drawing of an eggplant for a long-lost Orange County band called...Eggplant.
This was supposed to be an inner sleeve for an album...not sure if it ever came out
or if they used my iconic eggplant artwork...but I truly did get paid, yes oh yes.
"The Elusive Living Room" - book cover graphic - note the clever
butterfly reference and the visually contrasting fork-lift silhouette.
Hand-lettering is a dangerous pursuit - the best hand-letterers
make sure that every angle of every letter sings out like
sweet music...in art, the details are important!
A sexy, romantic panel from the ever-ongoing "Misery Loves Coffee" cartoon series.
No web page is complete without some naked, embracing, kissing line figures.
Another "Misery Loves Coffee" panel - the spheres are huddled around
their "leader" as "he" co-opts an old FDR quote to inspire his cautious followers.
A "tribal" t-shirt design for some obscenely groovy-clothing company - tribal always sells
Quartet of partially-not-unclothed nude line drawings in white and pale pink...and black
Drawing of a man, his dog and his small pine tree -
all three of them are about to tumble off that little sheer cliff.
But they most certainly are doing it in style. Note the spiders
hanging off of the man's lower eyelids...awesome!
compostion in red, green and other colors - Sears makes the best housepaint
Yet another "Misery Loves Coffee" panel - a blatantly obvious "play on words"
- plays on words are always vital to all forms of humor...especially cartoon humor
Yet another "Misery Loves Coffee" panel - substitute "pig" for "peg" and that's your cartoon
- plays on words are always vital to all forms of humor...especially cartoon humor!!
compostion in blue, green and other colors - Sears makes the best housepaint
Real painted switchplates - I probably painted two or three thousand of these
in my lifetime (and sold every one)...the key is to paint 'em assembly-line style
and to not think too much while doing it. Thinking has nothing to do with art.
Another "Misery Loves Coffee" panel - I don't really care for the violent imagery now,
but it's kind of a cute little neat cartoon. In a way, the brain IS somewhat of a think tank.
Quite often, it has to shoot wide, gaping holes in other people's faulty logic...wow!
Not sure who these guys are...Manny, Moe and Cal Worthington perhaps
Fun patterns done with a rapidograph pen and some cardboard!
The composition is 99% stabile, however there are two flaws that I notice.
This type of pattern work is based on those little lines and dots we all see
when we rub our eyes (phosphenes) - for most of my life, I've suffered from
horror vacui (fear of empty space) and have obsessively attempted to fill every
vacant compositional space on a given page. However, my horror vacui has
lessened since I started watching those PBS fund drives on a semi-regular basis.
Unfinished, home-made scratchboard art...looks to me like this is a drawing
of a dragon who is undergoing a kind of "internal earthquake" ...or maybe not.
Scratchboard was developed by the Early Romans in 1675
I see a cross, so this one just has to be religious or something. This graphic would
make a nice tatoo for the new Pope...or possibly for an up-and-coming pro surfer
This is a drawing of the abnormal and selfish octopus that ate Cincinnati
Design for a book cover...the composition is based on some early,
never-before-discovered Hindu tomb egg carvings in Northern Italy.
Flyer design for the "Funhouse" nightclub in sweet Orange County.
We changed the environment surrounding the clown for each flyer.
"Funhouse" flyer - Mardi Gras theme I believe - about 40 million of these
cards were strewn all over Southern California (in record shops and bookstores)
over a several-years period. It's always nice to see accordian-playing
cartoon clowns in a purple Mardis Gras graphical "space".
"Funhouse" flyer - nothing says 'dance club' like a cartoon clown
impersonating John Travolta. This card was printed in nice golden ink,
and if you've got one in mint condition it's worth $40 or 50 bucks
more art coming soon
all drawings copyright © 1991-2005 K.A. Benbenek
+ copyright © 2005 Funhouse Productions / Tesch
