We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ben Stallman. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ben below.
Ben, thrilled to have you on the platform as I think our readers can really benefit from your insights and experiences. In particular, we’d love to hear about how you think about burnout, avoiding or overcoming burnout, etc.
Avoiding burnout and keeping creativity alive have gone hand in hand for me. Mine especially has felt like physical burnout just as much as mental. When I was younger, I would work on things from the second I got off of work at my day job at 4pm, till sometimes 12am or 1am. While it felt great to push out that much work during that time, it was like using all the juice in the battery. I could keep it up for a week or two, but then it would all hit at once and I would sleep till 1 in the afternoon all weekend, or literally sleep till 11am or 12pm on a work day and miss work, just so tired I would sleep through all my alarms. So I knew something had to change.
It’s taken work, but I’ve found ways both physically and mentally to beat burnout. Obviously if there is a really important commission, that takes priority over everything, but even with that, I’ve gotten really good at time blocking. I write out how I want my day to look the day before, and if it looks like I can get this commission done on time by working 1-2 hours a day, I book that in my calendar, and make sure I hit at least that. And what ends up happening most of the time is I work 3-4 or more hours on it because I’m just having fun, I’m in the zone, or it’s flying by and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. But some times you have other commitments to tackle, or are wiped from the day and need to listen to your body calling for rest, or exercise. If I can still hit that 1-2 hour goal that day, then I allow myself to feel fully satisfied and happy, knowing I just hit my goal, and made progress towards the finish line of that piece. So between planning out my days to know roughly how long my commission will take, to setting aside non-negotiable time each day, I’ve found this helps tremendously.
The other big thing that helps me is I try to have 2-3 projects going at once. For instance, right now I have a very large commission wood burning a guitar for a musician. But on the side, I have 2 other projects going. And they are totally different than that commission that pays the bills and will hopefully advance my career! The first is a large, cowboy western motif style wood burn on a live edge piece. That is purely for me and for adding to my collection for art galleries and shows. There isn’t any deadline, and no one giving parameters of what it can look like. And the other is totally different from either of those, practicing illustration and learning the depths of brush-making in Procreate on the iPad. By spreading out my creativity across 2-3 pieces, it allows me (commission deadline dependent) to listen to my gut on what I want to work on that day, knowing whatever I do I am building my skills and advancing my art career. Most importantly though, it helps me avoid burnout by constantly having variety.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I have been a wood burning artist for 7 years now, and a graphic designer for 2. Wood burning I got turned on to by a former tattoo artist, who was doing it at his shop while I was getting set up for a tattoo, and was just blown away by the work, as I had always thought it was something you did in middle school shop class, and that was it. So I bought myself a kit on a whim and dove in, and literally haven’t look back. I’ve tried a lot of different styles, techniques, and tools over the years, but what I’ve found I love most and sets me apart is working on large scale pieces while packing in the details. My two primary styles I’ve done this in are traditional realism, especially with large scale landscapes and scenes of the Texas deserts, Maine coasts, and national parks, as well as American traditional tattoo inspired pieces, using fire and heat to get the signature shading and heavy lines you associate with that style. Those are the two styles that set me on fire the most, and also fill a niche. Especially in Texas where wood burning feels to fit naturally, I have not come across many in this state, and in the bigger world of art, come across very few wood burners working in 4 to 5 foot pieces, all while keeping the tiny minute details.
It’s been a lot of trial and error, but it’s been culminating in a lot of exciting opportunities, most recently having the amazing luck to partner with the Moody Center to work on custom wood burned guitars for artists such as Chris Stapleton playing there. So keep an eye out for those, as the 3 guitars I’ve been working on so far will all be burned and done and given to the artists by mid November.
In the graphic design realm, it’s been amazing to be exposed to so many new tools, processes, and skills since joining on as a designer and marketing coordinator at a licensed sports merch company here in Austin. I’ve had the luck to work with so many great teams in the major sports leagues, as well as local passions of mine like Austin FC and University of Texas. Seeing a few of my apparel designs out in the wild has been so weird and cool.
That is the latest that has been cooking in my realm, and they’re opportunities I wouldn’t have dreamed about a few years ago, where it felt like I was spinning my wheels more often than not to find a path forward with my art career. So if I could pass along one piece of cheesy advice, it would be that you may hear no 99 times, ghosted 99 times, or passed over when you felt you shouldn’t have been 99 times, but that 1 time someone says yes to a dream project, a gallery showing, a beer label collaboration, makes it all worth it. And you never know when that 1 dream opportunity may hit. So I always give myself 24 hours to fully feel and process a defeat, or a let down, but then I am back applying to things, emailing companies, and trying to knock down the door, because it won’t usually open on its own.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
So many to choose from! But the 3 that come to mind most are time management, saying no, and play.
Time management has opened so many doors for me, and made me a much more healthy artist. As I mentioned earlier setting time goals for each day, and specifically how long you want to work on a piece every day. That has been life changing. Not only has it allowed me to feel accomplished, organized, and not overwhelmed, it’s helped me find one of the most important things, my niches. I’ve told a lot of people a piece of advice related to all of this, and it’s find that thing that is worth saying no to plans for. What is that niche, that medium, or that passion that, if someone asks you to go out to dinner or for a beer, you are so at peace saying no to them, because you are so excited and focused to work on that project. Find that niche or style and chase that.
On the more practical side of things, I’ve actually started using a time tracking app! Not only does that help me track how many hours a day I’m working, so I know when I’ve hit my time goals for that day, or know how long a project is taking overall, but it’s been life changing on knowing how to set pricing and how much to charge for any given project, which I would just guess at years ago.
The second one is saying no, which goes a little hand in hand with pricing! When I first started out, I would charge bottom of the barrel pricing and I would say yes to any project that came my way, even if I was actively unexcited about it before even starting. And I think that’s common, but I do wish I had more people telling me that it’s ok to say no. You can say no if you have a gut feeling that a person may not be good to work with. You can say no if the pricing isn’t matching up, knowing that getting that little money for that much work just isn’t worth it at the end of the day. Your time is your money, and it’s ok to say no in order to protect that.
The last is keep playing. Never stop playing. Play helped me find my tattoo style wood burnings, as I was just messing around sketching them in sketch books and found I really liked doing them, and was just curious about what they would look like as wood burns. And 2 year later they’ve been in two galleries and a beer label. You just never know what that play can turn into. And it doesn’t have to turn into anything paid! I’ve found I love doing watercolors out in nature. I have no plans to sell them or make money off of them, but bringing a travel set on site somewhere, on a mountain, by a stream, in the desert, it all is extremely therapeutic and fills my cup in a way at home wood burning at my desk can’t. And that restorative art makes me a better artist.
What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?
The number one obstacle is just getting eyes on my work, which I know is so common. I feel like there is not anyone out there doing exactly what I do, so it’s really just down to finding my audience and getting eyes on that work. And the best way I know how to attack that so far (open to advice!) is to cast a wide net. My fiancée, Erin, helps a lot with the business side of things and has been an amazing help just trying to find ways to get creative and get my work out there! We’re getting into art markets in Austin, selling prints and stickers, applying for grants and gallery group shows, and even advertising on podcasts. Just trying to get the word out there. Even if it doesn’t work, we can cross it off the list and it helps narrow down our search for what works even better.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://stallmanartworks.com/
- Instagram: @stallmanartworks
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-stallman-68485b34
Image Credits
Erin Mellor
