Utilizing the strengthened visual literacy humans have adapted in recent years, Ben Mendelewicz is a digital artist whose works closely connect and relate to his personal ideologies and worldviews. Displayed through Google stock photos, Ben’s art usually delves into topics with more substance and complex themes. The long process of creating these highly saturated images is met with hours of searching for photos, relying on Google’s algorithms for optimization. With the release of his latest book titled “I Saw My Career Flash Before My Eyes”, Mendelewicz pushes to contextualize his work in a more cohesive manner achieving closure and personal satisfaction through it as well. Digital art being apart of his creative expression since age 6, Ben Mendelewicz is not planning on quitting his passion anytime soon, with two new books planned to be released sometime in the new year.

Where do you think the relationship between art and technology currently lies? Is overlay inevitable considering where the future of technology is heading?
I think we’re there. We’re in the sandwich. Inseparable, I love it. I have no authority in this though. I definitely wouldn’t say I function on some bleeding edge of technology in art or anything, I use very basic tools. And I specifically love when things seep down into the consumer level. I think from a technical standpoint, it’s democratizing. I think social media etc has elevated our visual literacy quite a bit and for all, it’s downsides I’d say that’s the major positive contribution. Everyone is thinking about image-making on some level, which I feel might not have been as much of a thing like 15 years ago.

How old were you and how did you first start exploring digital art?
Maybe 6 or 7? I feel like most people my age probably used Microsoft Paint when they were growing up. I got into flash games and websites when I was 10 or so. Photoshop around then as well.

What is the creative process like for you? Do ideas bounce around your mind? Or are they usually linked to a larger ideology?
It depends on the project really. Sometimes I will start off with an outline or a script, sometimes, with more abstract collages that are less premeditated. My graphic work is almost entirely photoshop and entirely collaged with stock photos etc. Rarely I will take my own photos for something I really need. Then I will do a great deal of processing and aggressive photoshopping. A very large part of my process is the scouring of google image searches. I will have an idea for a story but while searching for an image or some kind of multi-purpose furniture I will inevitably get sucked into a maze of other product or stock photos and it will likely drastically change the course of the project. So I am heavily reliant on google’s image search algorithms. Related searches, etc. It kind of ends up being this strange parallel narrative along with whatever script I’m working on.
I definitely have themes I keep coming back to and most of my narrative stuff is linked together thematically on some level. I’m into letting lifestyle tech and the most basic primal humanity rumble… Guess I’m pretty blatant with that. Like bleeding on a bo flex or something.

How long does it take to complete a piece?
It depends on the format but usually, as a rule, my work takes a pretty long time. Especially the more narrative work, like comics. Comics, in general, are already tedious but when you have to assemble a specific character from a new angle, with completely different collage materials every time it can become very time intensive. I have in the past built 3D models of sets to make things easier for myself but I’m not sure I like how they look. I’ve taken a few weeks on a page. A few days on a panel. As for other formats, they tend to go quicker for me.

What was it like to create your own book? What did it mean to you personally? It was my first in a while and most of it was older/previously scattered around in other anthologies but it still felt good to piece all of these different narratives together into a larger context. They are all telling a similar story. I think the assembly made a lot of the work finally seem finished to me, I like how sometimes books can add permanence to digital work. I called it “I Saw My Career Flash Before My Eyes”, which seemed apt for a collection of work that barely trickled out over the course of a few years where I wasn’t really making much. Also the ‘cover story’ is a sci-fi horror comic called ‘Lock-In’ which is about the potential of Live/Work culture, and the ‘career identity’.

Do you separate art from the artist? Are there themes throughout your artwork that relate closely to your personal ideologies in life?
If the artist does something naughty in their personal life then I can’t separate. If they’re good maybe I separate them their artwork if I don’t like it, heh. I actually think a lot of my work is personal but I’m not really trying to make it too didactic or anything. I can’t shake the satire but I think when I incorporate what would be considered ‘dystopian’ ideas into something it’s not really me trying to sound an alarm or anything. I’m just seeing how it tastes. Dystopia LARPING. People have called it nightmare worlds or something but I don’t know, I don’t think I would mind living it. Tastes kinda good.

What is next for you in 2020? I’m working on 2 more books at the moment as well as a lot of music that should all be out at some point in 2020. One of the books is the origin of those shirts you produced. It’s going to be a collection of (hopefully) thousands of portraits organized into large arrays very loosely based on Haar cascades.