Willow Glen Resident

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Photograph by Vicki Thompson

Christine Benjamin of Willow Glen was the featured artist at a recent showing in the Kaleid Gallery in downtown San Jose. Her whimsical style can be found on artwork for Dancin' on the Avenue and in children's books.

Benjamin's painting are full of mischief

By Beth Hobbs

As a child, artist and Willow Glen resident Christine Benjamin loved comic books and cartoon characters like Rocky and Bullwinkle and Underdog. Today, similarly whimsical robots, animals and funky people spring out of Benjamin's imagination and come to life through her artistic media. Painted in brilliant acrylics or oil pastels, sculpted into clay or digitally produced, her imaginary characters reflect very human lives and emotions.

A graduate of San Jose State University with a degree in graphic design, Benjamin expands on the make-believe of her childhood to amuse and inspire with a fantastic universe that may include blue robots, hairy one-eyed monsters, skeletons sporting hats or hearts, or oddball-looking people with oversized eyes and angular bodies. Benjamin often doesn't foresee what her characters will become as they take shape in her mind or on the canvas.

"They end up taking on a life of their own. I don't know what they're going to do. They tell me. They develop," she says.

Chico the sock monkey was one such character.

"I had Chico on the sketchbook forever," says Benjamin, "and then I was inspired by a friend who loves pastries."

The result was her painting "Caught Red-Handed" with Chico peeking over a table, poised to snatch a doughnut covered with sprinkles that look like they could be picked right off the canvas. And who is watching but a girl, hands on hips, wearing an expression that reminds the observer of the way a mother would react when a child tries to get away with something.

Benjamin's creatures may begin life as supporting actors in her work, only to find they play leading roles in a future creation. "Sometimes I have characters in a painting, and they creep up into other paintings," she says.

Hairy, a creature who lives up to his name, first appeared in a small painting and then reappeared on a larger canvas entitled "Monster Mash" alongside Vamp, the vampire woman, against a backdrop of curved buildings that look like they might be located in earthquake country.

Much of the joy in Benjamin's paintings is derived from her youthful and witty reflection of the world around us. While an author tells a story and asks the reader to visualize the faces, Benjamin gives her audience an image and then encourages the observer to expand the story.

"A lot of my paintings tell stories, and people can make up their own stories to go with it, she says.

In "Another Day in the Life of the City," her creatures are stuck in a gridlock of cars. There is a frustrated woman chatting on a cell phone. There is a skeleton behind the wheel, who may have been sitting in traffic a bit too long, and a two-headed creature who may have a splitting headache. This character personifies anyone who has experienced rush-hour traffic. Look longer and deeper, however, and Benjamin's witty nuances appear. Only the purple monkey notices a burning building and a spaceship flying overhead.

"The more you look, the more you see," Benjamin notes.

Benjamin's media is diverse, including freelance illustration for companies such as Yahoo! and Apple, various magazines and a variety of children's books. Her characters have also appeared on posters and clothing. She paints on skateboards, decorated a Lincoln Avenue bench in Willow Glen, designs the logo for the annual Dancin' on the Avenue and would like to create more public art.

She has also taught numerous art classes where she showed students how to look at objects and break them down into basic shapes. The art becomes how those shapes are put together, which in Benjamin's case is with an eye for fun and storytelling.

In a recent show, Benjamin's art brightened the walls of San Jose's Kaleid Gallery. She has done other exhibits in Santa Cruz and San Francisco, and was chosen to participate in an alien art show in South Dakota. She recently won first place for "Another Day In The Big City" at the "Heart of Chaos: Uproar" group show at South First Billiards in San Jose.

Continually expanding her repertoire of delightful characters, Benjamin has a goal to write and illustrate her own children's books.

Currently, some of her work is on display in the San Francisco STUDIO Gallery show, "Tiny."

For more information, contact Christine Benjamin at 408.292. 5818 or christineben@sbc global.net or visit her website at www.cb illustration.squarespace.com.