Rueben's Ramblings

Faeline Faery by Misty Benson

Artist Spotlight: This month’s artist’s spotlight is on Misty Benson, who grew up on a dairy farm in Idaho, but at the age of 12 she moved with her family to Washington. She later lived in Colorado and, for a short time, in New York. Her travels have also taken her to Nepal, Thailand, Costa Rica, Spain, England, Wales, China, and South Africa. All roads have led her back to Idaho, though, which is where she resides now. One of her most wonderful memories of childhood is running wild and reading lots of books.

Misty loves all things sweet and spooky, sugar and sour, morbid and adorable; ergo, the name of her website Morbidly Adorable Creations by Misty Benson. Big eyes fit all those favorites and have influenced both her faery and what she calls “skelly” art. She first saw the big eye art of Gig as a child, as her grandmother had one of Gig’s famous “Pity Kitties” pieces on the wall. Besides Gig, a lot of her inspiration comes from big-eyed dolls such as Pullips and Dollfies. In addition, she has a love and respect for all life; including insects, which also inspires her artwork.

As mentioned, she grew up reading the Serendipity books and the ElfQuest novels being her favorites. Her love of faeries was deepened by the magickal world of Brian and Wendy Froud as well as the art style of Junko Mizuno. Her personal experiences and wonderful reading adventures have combined to reflect her art. Frido Kahlo is also a huge influence on the darker side of her art.

While her mom and aunt were the artists in the family when Misty was growing up, she took her first art history course (as well as an anthropology course) in college, ending up with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Cultural Anthropology and a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Studio Arts.

Today, she primarily paints in acrylics and sculpts in paperclay because of their ease and speed. For her Gossamerfaery Attic, she paints and sculpts dreamy, big-eyed faeries and delightful Day of the Dead skeletons. These creations have been featured in paintings, prints, one-of-a-kind sculptures, magnets, stickers and cards. Both her faeries and skellies have been publishes in the books “500 Fairy Motifs”, “Big Eye Art: Resurrected and Transformed” and her solo book “The Morbidly Adorable Skelly”.

Her featured piece is called Faeline Faery, which showcases a glowering girl with her smiley “skelly” cat. This piece is one of her most popular images that depict her favorite things.

If you would like to reach Misty, you can email her gossamerfaery@hotmail.com or visit her website.