Best of 2007/ Oversized Moon And It's Adoration Of The Beauty

Well another year has come and gone, and the older I get it seems as though time is speeding up, so you have to make every second count because before you know it your whole life has passed you by and you've accomplished nothing. That's why I spend all my time at this, I want to be the best and practice makes PERFECT.
This was an amazing year for me, I had the ultimate blessing in the form of my daughter and I now have a new found perspective on what love is. That's why I work so hard at this because one day all this time and energy that I'm focusing on my art will soon manifest itself into something bigger and my family will be able to enjoy the fruits of my labor... ideally for generations and to think I've only been doing this for 4yrs, I'm still a baby at this.
My growth this year was also phenomenal I've branched off into so many styles, so many topics I really pushed the envelope this year in terms of creativity. This piece in particular was my first surreal piece and it really opened me up and my creative thought process. This one is without a doubt my best piece for 2007.
See you next year!!!

Hayden Panettiere

In my never ending pursuit to be the greatest photomontage artist of the 21st century, I've hardly had any sleep in the last 3 days, my eyes are blood shot red from looking at this monitor, I've had very little human contact except for my girl and my beautiful 6 month old daughter who always manages to get me away from the computer to spend time with her. I haven't seen my friends in months it's all about my work and my quest for greatness.
While this latest piece won't change the world, it is a style I've seen done alot on other art sites and I figured I 'd give it a try because I want to do something similar for my daughter and as a first attempt I'd say the end result is pretty good.

Birth

Just completed my newest piece. I've had it formulating in my head for a few days, I even dreamt about it. I was studying some of Salvador Dali's work and was reading his biography online and he had this technique called The Paranoiac Critical Method, which was a unique way of looking at the world around him. This inspired me to look at my perception of the world in a different context, thus giving birth to new ideas. This piece is a very surreal look at the birth of a child.

Valley of the Dolls

Going through my files found another interesting piece, can't even remember doing this one. Don't know what my thought process was and it's so surrealistic I almost left it stuck in limbo, but because I'm addicted to blogging and was looking for something to post, because I'm not working on anything right now, I thought what the hell somebody might like it.

Best of 2007 / Blowing Bubbles at a Music Video Shoot

Most of my best work for 07' is already posted, but this one, was one of my more creative pieces, so it had to be showcased. I was trying to make the elements of the piece interact with each other, to become one. This one I really pushed the envelope to try an make something in a style I had never tried before.

Honorable Mention 06' / Black Money

I was going to school in 06' but dropped out because I wasn't getting what I needed from the school. While I was there I had a visual communication class, and for one of our projects we had to redesign money. A classmate designed a $20. bill with Malcolm X on it and that shit looked so fucking cool, I was pissed I hadn't thought of the idea myself. I had to do my own version, so I found the same pic she had of Malcolm and I found a specimen copy of the new $50 bill online...and the rest is history. The only problem with the specimen bill is I can't print the damn thing, half of it prints and the other half has property of federal gov't or some shit written on it. That means I can only display it here, which sucks!

Best of 2006 / A Little Trip To Def Jam

This poster is a replica of a movie poster, and after I did it I saw a few dvd covers with the same layout.

Best of 2006 / Evil Empire

Evil Empire was my very first political piece, and it just might be my best one to date. It took me a few months to complete this one and a million revisions. I had George in the background, but I decided against it because the message became redundant, the white house is already a representation of the government. The face of the young man represents the young men and women who are placed in harms way to enforce a false doctrine.

Best of 2006 / Untltled 00

Merry Christmas to all Major corporations and the consumer zombies, who sucked the joy out of the Christmas spirit, unfortunately I'm also a consumer zombie! Let it be more about family and love of being with family and friends and less about shopping!!!

Since there is only a few days left to 2008, I'm going to use these few days to post my favorite pieces from 2006 and 2007, leaving the best for last. Starting things off is my favorite piece of 2006, can't remember when in 06' I did this one but it was so different to anything I had done before that I couldn't stop looking at it for days afterword. It was so simple but, strong. Never had a name for it, so this it's entitled, untitled 00.

Plies / Fight Club...Got Next

Sometimes I get extremely lucky with the images I find, this background was to die for, I mean it gets no sweeter than this... a Fight Club scenario. Plies expression is priceless, it almost looks like he's taking his chains off cause he's next up to fight.
I had finished it awhile ago but something was missing, so it was sitting in limbo. That's why I used his head for "The Hit" poster because I didn't expect to finish it completely. I just learned a new technique that I've been using on damn near everything, and thought I'd try it on this and to my surprise it worked like a charm.

Girl in Blue

Caught in the rapture of women.
Continuing to experiment with new styles, pushing the boundaries of color, textures and coarse lines. Ultimately it goes back to coming as close to the look of a painting as possible without the use of painting plug-ins. This particular look is more of a color pencil.

HIP HOP UNIVERSAL

Hip Hop is universal, it's gotten bigger than us all.

Focused Machine

Focused machine approached me to do a series of designs for their upcoming party, which consist of two logos, a mixtape cover and a flyer for the event. This is the front of the mixtape cover.

Aaliyah

Not very inspired this month, thinking about this big project I'm about to undertake with some colleagues of mine, has drained me of all my creative energy. I forced myself too create something and it took me almost ten hours to come up with this.

BLACK ROCK

Revised Version: FinalFirst Draft
More experimentation with this new style.

Another Milestone

The Hit / Gangster

Revised this image again, needed more room to tell the story

LOOKSEE / ALI BABA NEW

A Trinidad Band flyer.

Rza and the Bentley

Bobby digital!

Rapture

Public Enemy

Who is the real Public Enemy?

Youth Summit Logo

My good friend and business partner Anthony "Boogie" Dunn had a youth summit earlier this year aimed at sending positive messages to the kids and the community through the word of God. He wanted a logo designed for it since this was going to be a subsidiary company of his parent company FireStorm.ent (soon to become a household name for those of you out there who like popular music). We bumped heads a few times on the creative process, but the end result I think captured the essence of what the Youth Summit was and is all about.

Keisha Cole

LORD OF WAR

I was browsing the internet the other nite and I stumbled upon this movie poster spoof for Lord of War with Dick Cheney and I thought that was a pretty cool idea. So I tried to replicate it, because I thought that it could have been better executed. This is my version, check out the original version link.

George Bush

Everybody is always talking about how stupid George Bush is , but how stupid is he really. He got the American people to vote for him twice, he got the senate to go along with most of his plans, he made the people he works for and his friends extremely rich, while leaving the same people who voted for him out in the dust. So when he said Mission Accomplished, he wasn't joking. So the question is, who is the real idiot, him or you.

Jonathan Rhys Meyers Portrait

Stress and frustrations make me into someone else, and I don't want to be that person...sometimes I feel like I have multiple personalities and hence the inspiration for my latest creation.

Mario Powers UP

FuTuRE with no tomorrow / Gritty version

Wanted to make it a little more gritty, so it could feel more apocalyptic.

Papoose Mixtape Revisions

Good Music Mixtape

This weekend I'm feeling the creative bug again, when it gets like this I usually go for a few months then I go dry. Anyway I've been looking at mixtape designs lately and some of them are pretty good but, again, they almost all look the same. So since I took a break from doing that type of artwork, because I didn't want to become pigeonholed with just one style...I wanted to see if I could still make a mixtape cover that was hot. The Good Music Mixtape is a first in a series i'll be doing, one thing I already noticed is that I'm insane for textures, when I become a famous artist this period is going to be known as my "texture period".

Daft Punk Painting

My first actual painting. Not!

Winter 2 Explosion

www.MySpace.com/benzistudios

I finally created a myspace page and the theme of it matches this blog. I really put it up for networking opportunities and in time we'll see if it actually works. Anyhow I've been spending alot of time trying to make it just right and it's ok but I think it can be better. It kind of draws you in at first, but the novelty of it quickly wears off, at least for me anyway, maybe if I was chasing bitches it would be more fun. I have some of my work displayed there but I still want my own website to display and sell my work.

Ultimate Goal

Working on this new piece has me wondering if it makes any sense for me to continue creating. The answer is yes, because if I don't I'll spontaneously combust. I can't help not creating, I get withdrawal like symptoms if I stay away for too long. I always amaze myself when I do something different but that amazement fades in a couple of days and I want to create something bigger and better. I guess this is what makes me keep going, even though that I may think that it's pointless for me too continue. There are so many artist out there, so many different styles, so many different techniques and I feel like I could never make a name for myself in this art thing, even though I haven't seen anybody do what I do. Ok granted there are designers who do the same thing I do as far as "mixtape art" and I use that term loosely because in essence even though it's a form of photomontage, the style was adopted for mixtape artwork. But I really try to take it to another level by creating stories and not just putting heads together and putting buildings in the background. I also try to push the envelope by touching different subjects even though music and the artist is my main focus, I try to address issues that affect us all. The ultimate goal is for me to get into galleries and have my work become highly regarded. Only time will tell if it comes too past.

ALIEN DREAM

I had a dream awhile back where aliens were attacking, it was a pretty scary dream it felt so real. For days afterwards I kept thinking about it. This is a close representation of what I saw in my dreams.

Gym Class Heroes/Panic at the Disco

I went to a free concert and it was off the chain. Me and my lil sister went to see Gym Class Heroes and Panic at the Disco. Panic was the headliner but Gym Class put on a better show. Check out some of the pics. Oh yeah and that's my lil sis with Travis from Gym Class.

Duality of Clifford Harris Jr.

I wish I knew how to paint. As an aspiring artist, I think that painting and sculpture is the highest form of the trade. Being able to reach the highest point as an artist is my life's goal. Right now though I really want to master my own style as a digital /photomontage artist. If I never paint a single painting or sculpt a single sculpture in my life, I do want to be respected as one of the best photomontage artist of our time. This T.I poster, which will also be for sale, is my exploration of styles...trying to make it look like a painting without looking like a painting.

Real King Of New York

Bingi Bash 07'

Guilty Pleasures

I did this cover earlier this year...when I saw the ass on Khrysti Hill, I had to do something with it, figuratively speaking of course. The end result was a guilty pleasure...rappers have all the fun.