Mike Benson - Artist & Community Spotlight

This week's artist, Mike Benson, is also our Community Spotlight!

Mike Benson next to a wall of his art, including depictions of BernBaum's, Olivet Lutheran Christmas Service, Maplewood State Park Candlelight Trek, and a meetup at Cornfield Cafe in Pelican Rapids.

Mike's journey with painting, started after retirement as a way to keep his mind active, having been inspired by his bird watching. He started with painting birds that he would see on wood and then cutting them out as 3D wall art - sometimes adding additional natural aspects like perches and branches. From there he decided to branch out (pun intended) into painting everyday people, places and events within our community.

His artistic process is unique, in that he doesn't paint from memory or just what he sees - he uses photography to capture the moment and then he interprets it through painting. With a focus on community, his Folksy art style perfectly captures the care and love that he has for the moments and people that he captures within his paintings. In some of them, he also incorporates historical aspects of the area or adjusts visual perspective. His painting, The Lost Room, is a perfect demonstration of historical incorporation.

It depicts a small symphony style performance in a room of individuals. The room in question no longer exists, as it was heavily damaged during a historical flood, and the people, all public figures who may have been guests in this room throughout time, likely never encountered each other in such a way. After researching the room and its use during its time of existence, he compiled a list of individuals that have or could have graced its space and used it to create the scene. The painting seems to jump off the canvas with his use of layering individually painted elements to create depth and also denote their individual presence within the space.

The Lost Room by Mike Benson - additional details, such as room location and the names of individuals, are not provided for privacy reasons.

Aside from speculative or adjusted art, he also creates pieces of everyday occurrences, like meetups, people working in the community or buildings of note. Whatever the case, each painting he creates is duplicated and provided to the individuals that are depicted, one of which can be found in Sammy's Pizza on Broadway in Fargo!

A collage of three paintings - Top is from a StartupBREW meeting, bottom left is of Sammy's Pizza, and the bottom right is of a community member.

Through his involvement in the Lion's Club, he also contributed to the creation of the "Spirit of the Sandbagger," a tribute to the way our community came together to protect one another during periods of heavy flooding, more specifically in 1997 and 2009, which can be found arching over an entrance to the Riverside Gardens on the corner of 1st Ave N. & 2nd St N. in Fargo.

In addition to sharing his artistic interpretation of our community, Mike devotes his time to SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives), which is a group of retired individuals that provide mentoring to small business owners. He also attends and participates in StartupBREW, a weekly, local entrepreneurial networking group hosted at the Prairie Den from 8 am - 9:30 am on Wednesdays.

While he hasn't taken commissions, he is always excited to meet new people and capture moments, so if you see him around be sure to give him a holler!

Know an artist or someone that's doing great work? Submit a lead!

Community Spotlight Form

Artist Spotlight Form