Ben Clark - Mr. Wren & Friends

Enjoy the Ride

I've long admired the work of Ben Clark and was fortunate to meet him and hear about his spiritual journey so far, which involves surfing, parenting, graphic design, tattoos, bikes, traveling, punk music, Risograph printing and psychedelics. All the things I love! This took place at his studio post surf, in North Redondo Beach, CA.

You grew up in Florida so tell me about family life during your early years?

I grew up between Florida and Georgia during my formative years, getting a taste of two wildly different cultures. My mom worked a lot, and she was always looking for the next big thing so we moved around a few times before settling in Miami, FL. Moving around at such a young age was hard, to be sure, and I had a tendency to try too hard to fit in wherever I was. But this dabbling in these different worlds exposed me to a lot of different things that I’m still passionate about today—music, art, surfing, skating, bicycles, etc.

Your Father was a big surfer and got you into the water from an early age, correct? And he’s also got a fairly extensive longboard quiver I hear?

Some of my earliest memories are of being out on the water with my Dad. He taught me to surf at some of the same places he learned when he was a grom back in the 60s. I grew up south of Cocoa Beach, Fl, which for context is the home of Kelly Slater, so between my Dad and Kelly, it was pretty much guaranteed that surfing would be my *thing*. However, my Dad was what you might call a surfing “purist”, and as such he only surfed (and collected) boards 9’ and over. I used to be pretty bummed about this as all my friends (and Kelly) were surfing much smaller boards, but it served me well. Surfing a log is a meditation for me. It’s also way easier to catch waves and cruise, old guys rule.

If I had to guess, I’d say my Dad is closing in on 30 boards in his quiver. From different eras and styles—but mostly longboards. He’s got an old Greg Noll, several Dale Velzys— my Dad flew out to be with Dale while he made the board for him, one of the last ones he shaped before he passed. He’s got boards from local Florida shapers, some he found in the trash and restored, some that touch the ceiling. I have no clue what I’m going to do with them when he finally kicks the bucket, but I like to imagine building a surf museum in my backyard someday.

What were you into during your teenage years and when did you first have an eye for design? I know you were into punk and skateboarding around this time.

I was completely taken by punk and hardcore. Going to shows. Playing in bands. The visual history and the influence of all of these converging sounds (all of which happened before I was even born) created this experience for me that formed the building blocks for the person I became. The sense of community really stuck out to me and introduced me to some of the most special people in my life. I love meeting creative folks who come from the same background, it’s like an extension of the family formed all those years ago.

‍I think I always thought about music and art separately, not really realizing how closely tied they were for me as an experience. Subconsciously, I was being pushed into art because the bands I was listening to really gave a shit about the visual as well as the sonic experience. Over time, though, I started messing around with Photoshop and had a “stenciling” phase (thanks Banksy), and soon I was making show flyers and t-shirts for local hardcore bands. I’m quoted in my senior yearbook as saying “.. my dream is to create artwork for fellow musicians. I’d like to have my own clothing line one day that features my own designs.” Guess I was onto something way back when.

‍I got this book years later that crystallized it all for me—“Radio Silence: A Selected Visual History of American Hardcore Music”. Thumbing through this book for the first time suddenly brought all these memories and emotions back to my mind about the feeling I had when I saw/experienced these things for the first time. Seeing the original sketches for the Minor Threat Sheep, the way bands used to send their hand drawn artwork to printers on separate transparency sheets.

You’ve lived in Portland and New York and found these cities rather transient. Did you ultimately find the hustle of agency life not quite the right fit?

I was in Portland right after college and entered into my career at W+K along with about 20 other interns and it kind of set the stage for the next couple of years there. This was post-Portlandia, post-“put a bird on it” Portland. The city was well on its way to becoming a caricature of itself, and most everyone who lived there (and that I knew) was from somewhere else. But, that was its greatest strength. We built this art/design community with people from all over the place, all these different influences and styles coming to create this thing that was free of ego and super supportive. Man, I’m getting heated thinking about it, have never experienced anything like it. Pure beauty.

I fucking loved Portland, but I didn’t see a future there. My goal was always New York, so I pulled some strings so I could transfer offices with W+K and made my way there. Free of the comforts of Portland, I feel like NY is where I really started to figure things out for myself. At the same time I was having a huge crisis about my career. I had to get out of the agency world. I felt too constricted by the politics of corporate client relationships, and some of the trash projects and responsibilities of a “designer” at an agency. I made the jump over to Doubleday & Cartwright, flexing for about a year with those fine folks and it taught me a lot. By the time I was nearing a year there, my life had changed significantly, I met my (now) wife Catalina and we were both over the city. She’s from out here (OC) and we were pretty sure we couldn’t raise a family in NY so we made the decision it was time to move to LA. With the move came the decision to go freelance, which ended up being what I was looking for all along. I oscillated between full-time and freelance over the years, but always managed to find my way back to that freelance lifestyle.

You’re now settled in North Redondo Beach, Los Angeles and presumably calling this home. Tell me a little about your current lifestyle here and if you see this as a permanent location (for now)?

This is home for now. Certainly the longest I’ve ever lived anywhere. We found this space right before Covid and it has been everything to us. Huge yard for the kids and the dogs, 5 chickens and a garden in the back yard. I was lucky enough to have a separate space in the garage to build out my studio and go hard working remotely during the pandemic. The move made so many things possible in our lives/career and we’re both super grateful.

‍Our ultimate goal is to find a place in the woods where we can spread out, build the house we want and raise our kids, consciously and free of societal pressures, with a community of support so we can continue to grow.

I know we’re both fans of Risograph so what are a few of your top riso projects and are you thinking to invest in your own printer?

I got my feet wet with a Risograph back in 2012 when I was working at Wieden+Kennedy Portland. We somehow convinced the higher ups that buying a brand new machine would make sense for our design studio. What that meant in practice was that we would stay late making prints and once we felt confident we started making zines. I went totally hammer making stuff with friends from all over the country. It was bananas. I miss it.

I’ve tossed around the idea of getting one for my studio, and perhaps one day I will. But most recently I’ve outsourced my Riso projects to pros like Colour Code out of Canada. We did a zine back in 2019 called “Dogs In A Pile” which was a 6-color collection of abstract works that I was making at the time, to distract me from how much I hated my job.

Also image manipulation seems to be a consistent thread throughout your work, so how did that come about?

I’m just always looking for new ways to express myself. In a perfect world I’d learn some of these new programs and techniques in order to push it further, but there’s never enough time in the day. Especially with two kids. Ha. But, I feel like I’ve got my little bag of tricks that keep things interesting and can flex across the projects and ideas that come my way.

Lastly, I know The Grateful Dead have played a meaningful part in your life, so tell me about your relationship with the band?

Not gonna lie, I was a late bloomer. If not for my friend Daniel Albrigo, I might never have taken the leap. They were always one of those bands that I wanted to explore, but it felt totally daunting to jump in given all the lore and the staggering amount of music. I came up in the hardcore scene, and in some ways they represented the anthesis of punk and hardcore. But, artistically speaking, I’ve been drawn to their art and imagery since I was a kid. I had a Stealie window sticker on my window throughout my childhood. I just loved the way it looked, but I was a total poseur.

‍They changed my life, man. Pulled me out of depression. It’s fair to say that my spiritual journey coincided with my introduction to their music and my introduction to psychedelics. Before the Dead, I was stuck in this identification with the hardcore scene, straight edge, veganism—dogmatic thinking. I’m super grateful for the teachings from my past life, bu, it’s absolutely fair to say there was my life before discovering the Dead and my life after discovering the Dead.

‍Also half of the heads I know are old hardcore kids, so, it’s all the same shit, man! At least I’m enjoying the ride.

Top 5 tips in LA?

Just gonna name some friends and folks whose work I admire out here in no particular order.

@danielalbrigo – @somatictattoo

@rakinglightprojectsgallery

@martlettattoo

Go see my dude @salsalhair at @novaartssalon

Buy Ranch Direct, best grass fed meat in Southern California. buyranchdirect.com

And last but not least. My wife, Catalina Clark is an amazing midwife for all the ladies looking to get pregnant. catalinaclarkbirth.com