Benjamen’s DIY Pop Art

updated Feb 20, 2019

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Framed Coca-Cola can art above a vertical shelf with vintage lunchboxes, next to a metal pet bowl on wooden floor. — (Image credit: Apartment Therapy)

Name: Benjamen Purvis
Location: Ballard — Seattle, Washington

My style mixes colorful Pop Art with warm, earthy traditionals. Most of the artwork I have on display is my own — the “Hard Day’s Night”-era Beatles made out of Legos; the Lichtenstein-esque Superman painting; the Warhol-esque Coke can painting and soup can labels, plus others that aren’t in these shots. Painting for me isn’t really a passion or even a hobby (I don’t enjoy the process at all!); it’s just a cost-saving way for me to have original art in my home. I work as a magazine art director for a living.

Next to the refrigerator I keep a small collection of lunch boxes. I painted the Coke can using paint markers, and imitated the look of screen printing by intentionally painting it off-registration (the red shifts to the left). (Image credit: Apartment Therapy)

I live in a 900 square foot apartment in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood, with a slobbery English Bulldog and a relentlessly shedding British Shorthair. (My recent Roomba purchase has given me a new lease on life.) I have a pony wall separating the living/dining/kitchen/office area from my bedroom, and the only natural light I get are from the three windows in the living/dining/kitchen/office area, which faces a courtyard and another building.

BENJAMEN’S IMAGES
• 1 Next to the refrigerator I keep a small collection of lunch boxes. I painted the Coke can using paint markers, and imitated the look of screen printing by intentionally painting it off-registration (the red shifts to the left).
• 2 Living room/dining area. I recently bought a Dutch bicycle that I keep in here. In those black boxes are my DVD/Blu-ray collection, which I keep in alphabetical order. It took me 40 hours to assemble those Beatles heads from Legos back in 2002. I made the patterns using Lego’s now-defunct Brick-o-lizer online tool.
• 3 My living room. That Pulp Fiction poster in the lower left is in a theater-style frame that illuminates it from the back.
• 4 I have exposed shelving in my kitchen, so I wanted to put something there that would pop. So I made 16 different Warhol-esque soup can labels, and applied them to cans of Target tomato sauce (48 cents each).
• 5 I keep various art supplies in these jars stored in an old wooden Coke crate on top of the bookcase next to my desk. I’m a big Coke enthusiast (although I only drink Diet).

Thanks Benjamen!

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