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Heather Benjamin: Thematically, this body of work is pretty congruent with my work as a whole. I've always focused on the female experience, especially examining things like anxiety, sexuality, body image, and intimacy. What set this group of images apart from my previous work was my interest in bringing an analysis of things like jealousy and nostalgia into the mix. I always felt like my work before was very manic and in-the-moment; this body of work feels like a reminiscence to me.
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Actually, the title is taken directly from one of the romance comics I was influenced by while making the work for the book. Romantic Story was a serial comic publication. I decided to co-opt the name for my book directly from that since I loved how simple it was, and found the re-contextualization of it sort of nicely tongue-in-cheek. My book isn't about romance in a conventional, swoon-worthy way; it's about the anxieties and manic emotions that manifest themselves in psychotic patterns over and over throughout the course of a tumultuous intimate relationship. About obsession and complication and everything getting totally twisted and painful. So I liked the oversimplification of Romantic Story as a title.
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One thing I love about your work is that it's very intimate and often erotic, but also disgusting and foul. You visualize sexuality in such a visceral and even honest way. Can you tell me about your approach to illustrating the human form?On Broadly: What Happens When a Turner Prize–Nominated Artist Leads an Insanity Workout
My process of drawing the human body is sort of a dichotomous thing. On the one hand, I love the human form—I find it beautiful, and I enjoy the act of mark-making, so illustrating the body is an enjoyable and meditative action for me. But, much more than that, it's also cathartic. Although I find the body beautiful, I'm more often repulsed or angered by it in one way or another, whether that's due to things like body dysmorphia or just those really trippy and dark moments where you're too aware of your own flesh and meat.
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I'm pretty old-fashioned as far as how I create my work, which is something I pride myself on. I mostly draw on Bristol board or other heavy papers. I use pencil to vaguely outline what I'm going to be making, then go back in with either super fine pens or brush and ink. I don't create any imagery on the computer, ever. The only times I use the computer for my work is when I'm preparing something for print and need to fine-tune the contrast because my scanner isn't so great—or when I'm working on an illustration commission that's going to be displayed on the internet.This is all partially due to the fact that I'm not super computer literate, so even if I wanted to make some multi-layered computer drawing with a tablet in Photoshop, I probably wouldn't really know where to start. That being said, I really have zero interest in doing that. I don't like the aesthetic of artwork created on the computer. I care way too much about line work, mark-making, and the physical presence of my pieces to ever be making things from scratch on the computer. I know this is a cranky old lady thing to say, but it feels like cheating to me, when people make their work from start to finish in Photoshop with a tablet or whatever. You're not going through all the suffering that's necessary if you aren't dealing with things like accidentally spilling ink all over your page or smearing a line every so often, in my opinion. I don't think you're growing as an artist if you always have the option to control-Z whatever you mess up.
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Although you might not be thinking about the reader's perspective while making your work, what would be a fulfilling emotional or intellectual response someone might have while looking through Romantic Story?"I'm psyched if even just a few people look at one of my drawings and are like, 'That's how it is!'"
It's true that when I'm making my work, I'm not really considering the viewer at all. My work is created completely as fulfillment for myself, in order to sort of release and articulate my emotions. That said, obviously I do care about what people get from my work to an extent, otherwise I wouldn't bother making it public.The best is when people—usually it's women, but not always—say that my work really resonates with them for this or that reason, and we can get into a really great conversation about being able to relate to each other's experiences. Like when it's hard to articulate a thought, and then somebody says it in exactly the right way and you're like, " THAT'S what I meant!" I'm psyched if even just a few people look at one of my drawings and are like, " That's how it is!"
I've been with my partner for a pretty long time and the thing that just always floors me and makes me swoon is the experience of really growing together. Working on the things about yourself that you want to improve upon, and being able to do that successfully with the help and support of another person, as well as being that person for them, is really difficult, but in the moments when it happens and is visible it's really incredible. I guess most of the time it's sort of behind the scenes, but then when it manifests itself, that's the time when I think you can really feel like you're connected to another person in an otherworldly way. Witnessing another person's growth alongside you as well as experiencing your own as a result of them being there for you is pretty romantic to me.See more of Heather's work on her website, and order a copy of Romantic Story here.Follow Zach on Twitter.