Ben Jamin

“Ben Jamin” is a realistic depiction of the space under a 1930’s viaduct on Benjamin Ave., in Royal Oak, MI, in the late winter/early spring of 2019. Capturing the state of disrepair that it was in and contrasting that with the beauty of the light and shadow revealing its form and texture. The street sign used to have a misprint and was labeled with a capital J in BenJamin. The nickname Ben Jamin stuck. Currently, the sign has been fixed and the street repaved. An understated part of this composition is the depiction of Carl Oxley III’s bunny sign in the lower right portion; on the ground, partially covered by leaves and debris. Those “bunny signs” can be found all over Royal Oak, and are displayed to show support for the artist. He was arrested after painting graffiti of bunnies on another viaduct. He wanted to draw attention to the horrible state of the viaducts, and thought looking at happy bunnies would be better for the community, rather than looking at crumbling concrete with exposed rebar. I paid homage to his efforts by including his story in mine, but also showing how time erodes our memory of important to dos.