Life is a continual series of choices. Every day we are presented with options of what to do with our bodies, our voices and most importantly our thoughts and beliefs. These daily choices all add up and create the results in our lives: the projects we work on, the goals we achieve and the people we connect with. I always find it inspiring when someone’s choices, transform a no so great life experience, into something positive and helpful to our world.
Experience 032 The Choice Parade on:
Additional Information
Explore Frederick’s artwork https://fwnitsch.wixsite.com/home
Connect with Ricky and the E2K Community
> INSTAGRAM: @eager_2_know
> FACEBOOK: Facebook.com/eager2know
Transcript
Ricky McEachern (00:02):
One year ago, mark Benja quit the corporate world after 25 years and started in his new world of being a full time artist. I enjoyed getting to know him better, and I really appreciate his honesty and positive outlook on things. So you've been full time as an artist for about a year now, is that accurate?
Marc Benja (00:48):
I decided, yes. In December of 2018, I was going to be an artist period. Okay.
Ricky McEachern (00:55):
And that is something that in addition to being a creative endeavor is also an entrepreneurial endeavor. And I know that your background didn't necessarily prepare you for everything that has to do with being an entrepreneur. Um, can you tell me about making that transition? Obviously you are still making that transition because you don't transition to that within a year. Um, so forgetting about the creative aspects of it. Can you just tell me about the experience of everything else associated with being an artist?
Marc Benja (01:35):
It's? Uh, uh, my, my new phrase is it's, it's literally, it's literally a, it's like a 24 7 hustle. I mean, it is just, I was a little bit days by the way that I kinda get, I almost get pushed into it. I mean, it was my decision to push myself into the creative endeavor. Um, but I, you know, I, it was basically a kick in the rear that, that made me pursue it. And in terms of, um, yeah, the, the whole, I mean, it's, it's marketing, it's networking it's I basically decided that Instagram, even though I had very little experience with it was going to sort of be my means of getting out. Yeah. And how
Ricky McEachern (02:25):
Did you learn how to use Instagram?
Marc Benja (02:27):
So I, I, I had been taking pictures of my partner, like on and off, like I probably have a hundred shots in there or something, you know, on a separate account. So my only real knowledge of it was just this very casual taking pictures, you know, of my partner. And
Ricky McEachern (02:48):
I know you have a lot of followers
Marc Benja (02:50):
That was, well, that was right. That was the one that was my first account. But then, right. So then when I decided I'm doing this art thing, that's when I started the whole, uh, art account. So basically I've, you know, I've, I, I said to myself, you know, uh, you know, you hear rumors about, you know, Instagram's algorithm and how you gotta beat it and how you, you know, get people to follow you and you know, how you get exposure. I mean, cause that's how I, I see it as a means to a lot of things. I, uh, I see it as a means to get my work out there. I see it as a means to connect with people, all the, all that stuff. But I give a lot of support on Instagram. I, I, I, you know, when I, I actually use it, I think, I think the whole point of Instagram you think about it is if everybody just wanted to post their own photos and didn't want to look at everything that's going on of the people that they're following of people that they might be interested in, then what's the point.
Marc Benja (03:54):
I, you know what I mean? It's are you liking a lot of things? Yeah, no, I see. Yeah. I, I I've, I follow probably 2,500 people or so, so I, I, I, I see a lot that I, like, I, I comment on, on, on posts that I feel, you know, are deserving of a comment from me for whatever reason, you know, typically, you know, favorable. Um,
Speaker 3 (04:18):
So you're all sharing. Oh yeah, exactly. How did
Ricky McEachern (04:22):
You know to do that? Did someone tell you that
Marc Benja (04:24):
About a year? I, and I don't know. I don't know if anyone specifically told me to do that. I think I just started doing that and maybe the fact that I was getting, uh, you know, a favorable sort of, uh, response from Instagram, I just kept going with it. And I think the more you do it, the more you, the more you use it, the more, it, it, it, it likes you and it, I guess your algorithm is, you know, your, your, your head it's it's. Yeah. The algorithm is happy with you, I guess, is what happened. Yeah.
Ricky McEachern (04:55):
So the hustle was that, uh, an adjustment to be doing a 24 7 hustle. Um, there are people that have a 24 7 hustle personality and they go through life like that. Um, is that how you are, or did you have to learn to be like that?
Marc Benja (05:12):
I think if one is motivated to do something, at least myself, I, um, I, I mean, I give it a hundred percent. I, it isn't something, I was always busy at my corporate job. I mean, for 25 years, I, you know, was working 12 hour days, 14 hour days. It's, you know what I mean? I was dedicated to unloyal. I was loyal to my company. I was dedicated to my job and, you know, it's just the kind of person I am. I just, if I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it a hundred percent, I think with the fact that I'm new to art full time, or even part-time, or even, you know, I, any time exactly. I just, I, you, I, you just you're just need to be on it constantly. And
Ricky McEachern (06:01):
Plus it's something new, so it was probably new and exciting and it's the horizon is full of hope. So that keeps them
Speaker 4 (06:08):
Yes. It's it's it's
Marc Benja (06:12):
It is, yeah. That's part, yeah. That's part of the case. That's a lot of S I'm scared I'm yeah, this is all new to me. I've been a, uh, you know, a corporate slave literally for 25 years and I've gotten a paycheck regularly, and now they're not coming in and I didn't plan on this. So, um, it's, it's, it's motivation to do what you love, you know, do the art, make the paintings, make the drawings, whatever it is. And it's also, you need to, you need some kind of income to survive at some point. So I think it's all that. Yeah.
Ricky McEachern (06:52):
So can you tell me about why you made that jump and why you decided that you are going to take that risk to pursue being an artist?
Marc Benja (07:04):
So I w I was, I, I technically, I resigned from my job in December of 2018, but it was, it was, I was basically forced out. So I needed to decide right then and there, how, what I was going to do. And I said to myself, you know, last two companies that I've been at have been extremely volatile and what I had, what I've seen and talking to other people at different companies. And, you know, at the time was, it's just something, I, I just,
Speaker 5 (07:39):
I just don't want to do it anymore. I mean, I could be
Marc Benja (07:42):
Dead tomorrow. And then what I, you know, I just, what I studied art in college, you know, many years ago, and it was something that I, I kind of intended to do, but I, I just, you know, I got kind of sucked in by the paycheck. Are you
Ricky McEachern (08:00):
Ever planning on doing art and this was the opportunity, or did this situation happen with your corporate job? And you were like, okay, I need to do something different. And what, what am I going to do that is going to move me in a different direction from going back to a, you know, in the insurance industry, it
Marc Benja (08:22):
Was all that, this was probably the opportunity, like the push that I needed to, to do hurt. Uh, I think at the time I said, you know, first of all, I had some money in the bank that I could use. So that's something to consider if you've got a mortgage to pay or rent or whatever the case may be. You know, I, it's something I need to, I can't just drop everything necessarily, although I could. And I thought about it. In fact, I even considered just losing my condo, but, um, you know, realistically, I mean, I did have some, again, some cash in the bank and, uh, I still got some I can use, so that coupled with this push, I just felt like it was, this is it. I'm just doing it. I don't care what happens. I'm just going to do it
Ricky McEachern (09:18):
A little bit of a, I'm not going to over analyze it. I'm just going to do it. Yes,
Marc Benja (09:23):
I did not really overanalyze it that much. Yes. To answer your question. Yeah. Actually I really didn't. I just said, that's it. And I said to my partner, I said, Hey, we hadn't even been dating that long for maybe five months or something like that. And I said, I kind of expected him to dump me. And instead I said, you know, if I pursue art, are you okay with that? And he was like, sure. So I'm like, great, that's it?
Ricky McEachern (09:52):
Yeah. So this is, uh, it's, uh, your situation is very similar to my story because, um, you know, art is really my third career. Um, in both of my first two careers were based on, um, something that I knew was pretty much guaranteed success. And, and I knew that there was a plan for success. Uh, my first career, I have a degree in engineering and my first career was in industrial industrial sales, working for large chemical companies. I mean, it's like you have the support of an entire global industry to be successful. And there was a career path. My second, um, career was in internet technology. I mean, so there's all kinds of, it's a huge industry. There's all kinds of success stories. I had all sorts of people that I could look at and saying, okay, this is a solid plan. Third time. Now I'm doing art.
Ricky McEachern (10:52):
I realized that if I'm going to have to draft a plan for success, I'm not going to do it because I can't, I just can't, you can't do it with, with being an artist because I had to gauge my success metrics in other ways, um, which I'm still working on. But, um, but it's a very different, it's a very interesting choice that you and I have made because there is, it's really hard to find people with a, uh, there is no like, uh, success track that if you just do this, you will be successful. If you're an engineer, there is a track. If you do this, you will be successful type of thing, but it is not the case with artists. So I wonder we're just, are we just crazy going on? I mean,
Marc Benja (11:41):
And it's funny, it's, it's interesting that you put it like that because insurance is also, I mean, it just gets bigger and bigger. And if I wanted to continue to do that for the next 15 years, so I retire fine, but I, yeah, I completely agree with you. It's it's yeah, it's a little bit crazy. It's um, part of me wishes, I started this back in my twenties, but then part of me knows that I'm a little slow and people always say to me, mark, you're not slow, stop calling yourself, stupid, whatever. But in reality, it takes me time to actually sometimes digest things. Anyways, it's taken me, you know, what, 25 years to jump into arc, even though I went to college for it. But yeah. To answer your question. Yeah. In regards to a plan, there is definitely no, there's nothing nothing's written in stone, particularly in regards to art.
Marc Benja (12:33):
There's no track. Um, I think that, you know, I, I, I've spoken with a couple of artists that I've met through Instagram, even in different countries. Who've, you know, and I, and I, before I really dig a really dive myself into all this, I said, you know, is it, is it possible to make a living? And you know, one of them in particular who, um, is, is, I mean, she's, she's popular. I mean, she's got like, you know, a hundred thousand followers and she shows she sells her art on a regular basis. She's got, you know, shows all the time and she's got, uh, people who represent her. She said, there's absolutely, you know, there's more opportunities now, but there's still no, you know, like with the internet and everything, but there's still no, there's no.
Ricky McEachern (13:18):
Yeah, no, I th I definitely think there, there absolutely is you can be successful without a doubt. Um, but I think that there is no track. Like we talked about, um,
Marc Benja (13:31):
A friend of mine who used, who, oh, I went to high school with, she subsequently moved to New York and she opened up, uh, like her own firm for, uh, graphic design and production design. And she stopped doing that. And she ended up working for corporate America. Like she came back here for whatever reason. And I said to her recently, I said, you know, she knew I was becoming an artist and doing it full time. And she, she, I asked her, well, how come you don't, you know, continue to do this? And she said, she's lazy. I mean, it, it kind of goes in line with, it's not saying that people are lazy, cause she's not lazy, but corporate America has got, like you said, it's got this track. And with a lot of different jobs, you can just go through the paces. And if you do, you know, you work hard, you'll keep moving up, ideally and get promoted and get raises and with art, it's just,
Speaker 5 (14:30):
It's not.
Ricky McEachern (14:31):
So let's talk about your art. Um, I know you're an abstract artist. I am not. So I want to know a little bit more about when you sit down in front of the canvas. Can you tell me about that process? I know that's a really big question. All right. That's fine.
Marc Benja (14:49):
Um, to me, when I see a canvas, uh, it's, it's very exciting to me because it's, it's, it's a start of something completely new it's. Um, it's, you know, there's just so much potential. I mean, you got this blank canvas and, you know, starting physically, what I do to start is if I've got no particular inspiration in mind, if, you know, depending on my, my, what I'm thinking at the time about this particular canvas, I can just start making marks. I mean, I'm not afraid to just start with something, whether it be pencil or even start with just paint, you know, like maybe acrylics I'll start out with or something like that and let it dry or a wash and see where it takes me. That's, you know, part of, so this, I think you pointed out I've, I've been doing this full-time for one year. So I, I feel like artists should always be evolving and clarifying and perfecting their voice, or, you know what I mean, finding their, I, I feel like I'm really fresh instill finding my artistic voice, my creative voice still. So there's still a lot of, there's a lot of experimenting I'm still doing. Okay. Um, how do
Ricky McEachern (16:14):
You feel about that? I mean, when you are spending your time experimenting, do you feel like that is wasted time? Do you feel like you're investing time? Are you feeling a sense of pressure to get beyond the experimenting and to start producing something that is not experimenting? I F I feel like, you know,
Marc Benja (16:37):
I mean, painting is, so even if you've got a piece of representational art or that I've worked on, I might not, you know, you always kind of question, is it finished or is it not finished? You know, is there something I can do to fix it, improve it? I, I, I feel like I, I mean, I actually just, I was extremely fortunate enough to just like, have a show. And I mean, that's like something I wouldn't have expected, you know, for 10 years down the line, but Instagram kind of helped me to get that, you know, connection. But anyways, my point being, I, I, you know, I've worked on more than 30 paintings over this last year. The, a lot of them are just, you know, even though they went in, they were in the show and the show has come down, I'm still gonna maybe work on a few of them. You know, these experiments are, are just kind of like ongoing. I, a lot of these are, are like, partly, I think some of them were sort of like, like almost like an, uh, an ultra sketch. Like I, part of me felt like I needed to speed myself along a little bit.
Ricky McEachern (17:44):
Do you have a vision for what a mark, as a successful artist would look like
Marc Benja (17:49):
A success to me, at least initially would be to be able to, for example, sell one painting per month, that I could pay my bills and pay my mortgage. That would be like my realistic view of my first real milestone.
Ricky McEachern (18:07):
Okay. So, I mean, if you, so moving forward that is you would be happy with that. It's important. Yeah. I mean, so you're not looking to be, uh, you know, the next American great artist, uh, intercourse. That would be great, but you are looking. And, and the reason why I asked this question is I'm trying to figure out because you, you walked away from something and you are looking for, uh, for something else. So there was a trade off. So I'm trying to figure out what the trade-off was because you walked away from a consistent paycheck. Um, and so what is it you think you're going to get? Well, right now, I've got a
Marc Benja (18:49):
Certain degree of freedom in terms of time and how I spend my time, what I do with my time. Um, I, yeah, I mean, I think it's, I, I, obviously I want to be able to show my work. Um, yeah, I don't, I don't feel like I need to be the next Rothko Hockney, whatever it is. I mean, it would be fantastic if that was the case, but I think really realistically, I don't have an endless supply of money sitting around and therefore, I really like to be able to just have some, you know, regular collectors, some people who are interested in purchasing my artwork, or, you know, if I can figure out something, I mean, there's lots of different options. Figure out something to at least, you know, have something that's a little more consistent than what I have now, if that makes sense. Okay. I think the financial is, unfortunately it's important, but again, I'm not, I'm not independently wealthy. I, you know, I'm just, yeah. So I mean, that, that is an important aspect of it. And the other, I think for me to be able to really my important, another important thing to me that I think about it would be to really clarify my artistic voice. So it's those two things. It's that creative part. And then it's that financial part.
Ricky McEachern (20:17):
So what would you say to people, um, that are thinking about making a change into doing something different? There's probably a lot of people that are listening to this that are in a situation similar to what you were in, where there's a fork in the road, and they can either go with what they know is going to be, um, what they already know and they, and they know the good and the bad of that, but then there's also another that they can take where it is more risky and it's, and it's unknown. What would you tell people that are at that point?
Marc Benja (20:57):
I think that while art is an extremely difficult career to pursue, there are hundreds and thousands of people that do it and are successful at it. And that alone should tell anybody, you know, look at what, what, what you want to do, whether it be art or anything else and say, you know, if you know, one person that's done it successfully, or if you can find one person, then it's not impossible. And anybody I'd say, I don't know why later in my life, I feel this way, but just, I think that it's anything is possible. If you can save up enough money to say last yourself a year or something like that, um, I, if you can do it, you know, realistically I would, I would try and pursue that as much as you can. I that's, my recommendation is anybody can do it. In fact, what amazed me when I went on my second round of college was, uh, which was about 10, 12, 15 years ago.
Marc Benja (22:12):
Um, I, you know, I met, uh, an artist who was my art teacher and she was not a famous artist, like ones, you know, you see in magazines on TV or whatever that everyone's heard of, like Picasso, but she was making a living with her aunt. And I guess I didn't really ever think something like that was possible, but I really, anything is possible. I think if you're, if you're willing, if you're, if you think if you're optimistic and you think positively in that you're going to do it, you just you're going to do it. I support that. I mean, I just think it's, I, you just, you, you have to have that mindset too. You need to, you're going to have real bad days, and you're going to think, you know, the worst things, but you just need to keep going. You need to, you just need to do it. You just know that at the end here something's going to happen. It's gonna happen slowly. And I, you know, I, I don't have any expectations on the day to day. I don't have expectations about people and what they say they're going to do for me and this and that. I just, I'm doing it myself for myself. It's it's going to happen.
Ricky McEachern (23:29):
Yeah. And I think there's something to be said for, um, all of the standard things that you always hear about hard work persistence. Um, you know, when you fail getting back up and, you know, just keep moving and staying focused. I think, I think there's something to be said for, um, for that
Marc Benja (23:53):
Persistence is, is so much more important than talent. If you want to succeed as an artist, as you know, w with, you know, to, to make a living at it, I should say, it's, it's important to be persistent. Even if you don't want to make a living, you still need to be persistent about it and something will happen. Persistence is the key. Yeah, absolutely. Right. How
Ricky McEachern (24:17):
Do you think, um, being persistent, do you think that's something that you are inherently, or is that something that you, um, have developed? Can you tell me about that? Because I think it all comes from the mind. I think that your mind is the start of everything. Um, how you view the world, how you view your relationship with the world, how you view your relationship with other people and the, and the way you, your mind and the way you think is how you're going to be persistent. Because if you have a mindset that I will never be successful, why are you going to be persistent? But if you have a mindset that if I keep going, I will eventually be successful. That mindset is going to enable persistence. I agree. And I think, I think it's the mind I've recently, like, realized this, I think is the, is the root of all of, um, of all of these good habits that, um, Lee, you know, lead to success in whatever you do.
Marc Benja (25:29):
I, yeah, no, I, I entirely agree with you. I mean, you're, you definitely need that mindset first and then you need to yeah. And then you need to put it into action. I mean, you need to do it. You need to just keep going at it. Yes. I, I believe, yeah. Like what you said, I agree with. Yes, it is mine. So have you heard of the, I think this is on topic, the five second rule. So there's a three second rule where you drop food on the floor. And if you pick it up within three seconds, it's still safe to eat. The five second rule is what I read and I've, I've heard it more than once. Since that time. My initial time, I saw it. If you are inspired, all of a sudden, you're sitting on the couch, when you come home from work and you say to yourself, God, I really need to paint.
Marc Benja (26:17):
You should do it. You need to do it within five seconds. Otherwise, if you don't, your mind will convince you not to do it, and you have only five seconds to do it. So that's sort of in line with on a more specific scale, you know, on a day to day. But I, yeah, I agree with you. I, I think that you need to, you definitely need that mindset of you're just going to do it. And it helps when you've decided that you are never going to get that paycheck again, that came from what you've done for the last 25 years. You know, you're put into a precarious situation if it involves financial as well. But I think that, you know, if, if you, if you want to really do something, you just gotta do it. You just gotta do it. So
Ricky McEachern (27:04):
It sounds like another part of this is action. Yes. As opposed to thinking about it, talking about it,
Speaker 4 (27:12):
You got to do it, do something.
Marc Benja (27:13):
Yes. You gotta do something. You have five seconds to do that thing. You just got, you got to do it. You just gotta paint. You just got to get on Instagram. You just gotta look at other people's work comment a little bit. People start following you. And, but there
Ricky McEachern (27:28):
Are so many people out there that are thinking all sorts of things, and they talk about all sorts of things. And they represent all of these big ideas that they have for themselves, but they don't do anything. They actually, they just talk about it or they do very little and, um, they don't get the results. And a lot of these people are very talented in, in what, and I'm not just talking about art, I'm talking about in all areas of life, people that are very skilled and talented, but they are not putting in the actual, the, the work or the effort or the persistence. Um, and they just, they just talk about it. Agree. So, and I think the doers will ultimately, um, you know, they will end up getting the results. And I think that's important. It's important for people to, um, to just, and I think everyone, excuse me, you're absolutely right. Everyone knows that. But I think that we get, it's so easy to get distracted there because there's, you know, in 2019, there's so many sources of distractions that keep us from acting, um, that we get distracted. And we don't, we don't realize that. I agree if,
Marc Benja (28:47):
If you're painting, you know, whatever, however, often a week or whatever, even if you're able to get home from your corporate job and paint or do whatever it is you want to do, and you say to yourself, oh yeah, I'm gonna start, you know, I'll get on Instagram or I'll send, you know, a couple photos of my paintings to a gallery or whatever the case may be. I, you just, or even just to, to, to be able to pick up a paint brush, you know, say, I wish I picked up a paint brush thing. Cause now I don't feel like it. And it's too late. I'm tired. And you just got it. Yeah. It's the persistence. Yeah. It's the people who, who actually do it. I a hundred percent agree are the ones that are going to succeed. And you it's like you it's. I think what people don't realize is even though there's no track for us, at least artists look at all the people that do do it. I it's just it's. I didn't realize this until recently. It's it can happen. It's not, it's so easy to in your mind before you say you, you know, it's, it's, it almost takes more energy. And maybe some of us, I was thinking about why didn't I pursue this so long ago? It's I don't know if it's,
Speaker 5 (30:07):
Uh, uh,
Marc Benja (30:09):
I think one of your, in one of your podcasts, you talked about it's, you know, there, there might be like a fear of rejection or fear of failure, failure, you're you feel fear you won't make money or something like that. I there's no track for any entrepreneurial.
Ricky McEachern (30:25):
You were listening to my earlier in my, in my, um, first couple episodes, fear of, um, rejection kept coming up for some reason. Yeah. I
Speaker 5 (30:37):
I'm totally fine with being rejected.
Marc Benja (30:40):
I mean, I guess that's, uh, so I don't know if people have that fear. I mean, I'm assuming there's, I mean, there's other people than myself that might have that fear, but you just, just get up and just, you just got to keep going. Yeah.
Ricky McEachern (30:53):
I think what I think what came up a lot was, um, we w it kept coming up that kids, like when you are in elementary school, when you had like art class or whatever you had the time when you were doing artwork, everyone was sort of equal. Like there wasn't like the artsy kid in first and second grade, everyone was just doing it and everyone was confident and everyone was exploring art, but then at some point it just changes. And you people follow kids as they become, adults are less, um, open to being creative and just doing things without, you know, more specific, um, guidelines. And I think that's where it came and it came and it was about, um, people just feeling, looking stupid and people feeling a sense of rejection. So that's probably what you were hearing on the podcast.
Marc Benja (31:47):
I think that was part of that. I, I, I think you need to be able to, you know, for example, on Instagram, you're going to get feedback. And actually what drives me nuts is that all of my comments are positive. I want someone to tell me, you know what I mean? I actually, I would like some unfavorable because I know everyone doesn't like this work and I want to know what people like. And don't like, and whatever, just because it doesn't necessarily have an impact on what I'm doing, but it, you know what I mean? It, it, it still gives me a more real connected feeling with the people that are looking at well
Ricky McEachern (32:29):
And also gives you nuggets to help guide you. That's right, right. If there
Marc Benja (32:34):
Are actual, you know, some of it's, uh, well, it's all subjective, but at the same time, there are even elements in an abstract work where, you know, you could look at something and just kind of say, even if you're not an abstract fan, you need something in here. You need just a little contrast. Yeah. I go
Ricky McEachern (32:53):
To, um, an art critique once a month at gallery studio. Oh. And Ravenswood. And you can bring two pieces of artwork and it's people giving you all other artists, giving you feedback. That's great. Um, and it's, it's really helpful. And I think feedback is wonderful. I'm always, particularly as it relates to this podcast, I am always asking people, please give me feedback. And I tend to get, um, positive feedback. Um, unfortunately, I mean, you know, because I just don't know what, um, you know, I'm looking, I want to make things better and I want, I want feedback from people and I don't really get any, but whatever, but that doesn't mean if you're listening, please give me a five, five star review on, on the iTunes store. No,
Speaker 4 (33:42):
I agree. Like you said, I
Marc Benja (33:44):
Will also in one of the other podcasts was you don't learn without making mistakes. You're not going to learn if everybody keeps saying to you, oh, this is beautiful. This is great. This is wonderful. I need to know, tell me, I want to know what sucks about it, because I need to improve. I want to improve. I want to get better. Like you said.
Ricky McEachern (34:06):
So, you know, what's interesting about this concept of getting of getting feedback is when I was in corporate America, when I had like my reviews, I would get like a knot in my stomach thinking about any sort of, um, negative feedback, like thinking that there was going to be some, like, I would dread it now for whatever reason it is completely flipped because I embrace any sort of feedback like that. Yes. Are you the same? Do you feel the same way? To some
Marc Benja (34:37):
Extent? Yeah, it depends on who was giving the feedback back in corporate America. I would tend to, I had a real good boss for a long time. And I think his feedback was put in such a way, you know, he was a good guy and he was a good boss and I think he wanted people to improve and grow. And I thought he was doing it in such a way that was, you know, not pointing fingers, placing blame, et cetera. It was just a chance. It was an opportunity to grow, but I can see where it's definitely a different story. Cause I was definitely more defensive. Yeah. Now that you mentioned it, there's definitely an interesting, yes. There's definitely a difference. I think there's
Ricky McEachern (35:19):
More, there's more value to, to constructive feedback right now for us than there was before, as it didn't really feel like it was help. It was more just annoying. I felt.
Marc Benja (35:31):
Yeah. And maybe, I don't know if it's because it's that, it's there all about corporate America is all about money sorta and art is not entirely about that, but you know, when they're paying you, they're telling you what you want to do and you don't want them to say there's anything bad because then your paycheck is at risk. Whereas now it's, you know, you're, you're just trying to really grow and improve. So in
Ricky McEachern (35:58):
The past year, since you have been doing art, um, have the con the types of people that you are interacting with different, are you, because obviously you're interacting with more artists, I assume, um, has the nature of how you communicate and those connections, are they different than the connections you had before you became an artist? Yes,
Marc Benja (36:25):
I think now you're right. I there's a lot of communication with artists because there's just a lot of artists on Instagram. And so there's a lot of artists following other artists and talking to other artists. And, um, I think that, yeah, now the conversations are about
Speaker 5 (36:48):
Art,
Marc Benja (36:50):
You know, our own respective art there's conversations about, Hey, you know, what would you do in this situation? For example, I, I, I, you know, applied for a fellowship, which has, art-related a printmaking fellowship and I was accepted. And then I also got at the same time, someone approached me about this little show and I'm like, wow, there's kind of a lot going on here. So I reached out to his artist, friend of mine, wait a minute, Instagram who's in London. And he's had shows and his work's been in, you know, at least one book that I'm aware of and et cetera. So he's, you know, he's, he, he's his, he's a mid-career artist. He's been doing it for over 20 years. So I had a lot of, I've had a lot of questions for him over the course of the last year. Uh, and he's been real helpful about just providing advice on my art, on dealing with, uh, like this, you know, this, the gallery owner on dealing with all different kinds of things. I mean, it's, it's, it's great. I mean, people are, so for the most part, I think people that have got,
Speaker 5 (38:03):
I think they've got your best interests in mind
Marc Benja (38:07):
And at least I hope so. And, um, yeah, I, and I, and I love to help people. So anything that I've learned, I've been, you know, anything that, any kind of knowledge that I've learned over just over in the last year. I mean, I'm happy, happy to, to share with people. I try to tell people about stuff all the time. In fact, I just met with an artist yesterday and talked to her about Instagram because she had helped me with something. And so I just, I said, if you need anything, you know, just let me know. And she said, yeah, I really, I need to get on Instagram and I need you to come over and help me. So I was happy to spend a couple hours with her. And so it's a nice, yeah, it's, it's great to see artists network. And there was, you know, there was good times, fun times back in corporate America, but nobody had any kind of interest in art at all. So, you know, I, that, that was one thing that just completely lacked, you know, great people that I worked with and everything, just that part of it was not there. Sure. That makes sense.
Ricky McEachern (39:14):
So if people want to learn more about your artwork or see your artwork, where can they find that
Marc Benja (39:21):
They could find it on? I have a website now, so it's, it's actually mark benja.com and spell that M a R C B E N J a n.com. Or if you'd look me up on Instagram, I, you know, I've got a page or two. Okay,
Ricky McEachern (39:43):
Great. Well, thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you for coming to my home. So we are actually recording this in my dining room because the, the studio that I normally record in is closed for the month of January. So except on the weekends. Um, so, and, um, I was very nervous that my CA I have a very vocal Siamese cat. So I was nervous that he was going to come out and, um, make himself known and try to get attention. And, uh, so I don't know. Maybe I'm a little disappointed that didn't happen, but no, but thank you for coming. I appreciate it. I appreciate you having me. Thank you very much. Very welcome. My name is Ricky McLaughlin, and you have been listening to eager to know the podcast. If you haven't already, please go to apple podcasts and subscribe rate, and review this podcast. Join me next week for another eager to know podcast.