Sincerity in Practice: Benji Nate and Stephanie Pierce

I have had a lot of time to think lately due to some health issues and a lengthy recovery from a broken ankle, so truly, that’s all I’ve been able to do. With the exception of some sketching in my sketchbook, I haven’t had the energy or capacity to make art, and, to my surprise, it’s been a good thing.

 

Somehow during the last two years I’ve become really hyper focused on things that don’t matter that much to me, thinking about what I “should” be doing and what my work ought to look like in order to be considered professional—all of these spiraling kinds of thoughts about what I’m doing without thinking about why I’m doing it. I’ve been stuck in an expectation of what my art should look like while simultaneously being bored by it.

During this slow recovery, I've been thinking of artists I’ve had the very good fortune of meeting and getting to hang out with. Two who I greatly, greatly admire are Benji Nate and Stephanie Pierce. Their work is very different from each other’s and from my own, and I love it.

Girl Juice, cover, by Benji Nate. Image taken from Silver Sprocket.

Benji Nate is someone I first became aware of from Instagram. She makes these great comics. I love her style and creativity and stories. She’s, like, so good. Imagine my surprise when I was part of an art market, and I saw her setting up her table in the next row (celebrities—they’re just like us!). She’s such a generous person and a lot of fun. What really impresses me about Benji, though, is her work ethic and just the amount of creativity that comes out of her even in a regular conversation.

Stephanie Pierce is someone I met through another artist friend, the amazing Sarah Norsworthy, while Stephanie was teaching at the University of Arkansas. Her artwork is stunning, and she is a very thoughtful person who always came off to me as knowing exactly who she is. I’m an oil painter, which makes Stephanie’s art practice more immediate to me. I think about her a lot when I paint, and the luminosity and intentional mark making I see in her work.

 

went down like shadows. Stephanie Pierce. Oil on linen, 64"x50", 2021. Image taken from stephanie-pierce.com.

 

So these two women, they're aspirational. They’ve really made a career for themselves and have a lot of recognition. And they’re good folks and make good art that makes my life better. With all of this time where I'm just sitting around and doin' my sufferin', I looked them up online and was reading different interviews with them. Two quotations stood out to me:

[Benji] “I think being as sincere as possible in the way you make things produces good work. Ask yourself what you wanna see in the world and not what you think the world might want to see from you. I think making assumptions about what people want leads to boring work. And why be bored when you get to create new things?” * From Carlyn Hill’s “What’s it Like Making Comics for Vice? Find out with Benji Nate” for Threadless.

 

A page from Hell Phone by Benji Nate. Image taken from Silver Sprocket

[Stephanie] “It almost feels like this arbitrary thing where I’m saying to myself Don’t be what you are. Be this other thing. Now is the time. And it doesn’t work. When I’ve tried it, it just doesn’t work. […] The most important thing for me is to know when I am actually interested in investigating something or when I am trying to replicate something I’ve done before.[…] I would say the thing is not having the expectation. For me, that is the thing that gets in the way and can keep me from growing; having some kind of expected outcome.” * From Neil Plotkin's  interview with Stephanie for Painting Perceptions.

 

Untitled. Stephanie Pierce. Oil on canvas, 48"x60", 2010. Image taken from stephanie-pierce.com.

In those statements, they captured exactly what I’ve been frustrated with about myself and my work. I’ve been bored by what I make. I’ve been thinking too much about what other people might think is good or take seriously. And I’ve been mulling these things over several months of being sick and laid up. Seeing Benji and Stephanie articulate the need for sincerity in art is really validating. I guess my next thought during this recovery period will be why I need validation from “real” artists and not myself, but that’ll be another thought for another day.