{"id":7385,"date":"2020-01-14T15:47:24","date_gmt":"2020-01-14T21:47:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/?p=7385"},"modified":"2020-01-14T15:54:51","modified_gmt":"2020-01-14T21:54:51","slug":"joe-benjamin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/2020\/01\/14\/joe-benjamin\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Benjamin"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Joe Benjamin<\/h1>\n

by Joshua Heston<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pen and ink artist, Joe Benjamin, is not only extraordinarily talented, but also one of the nicest of folks you’ll ever hope to meet.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Five of Joe Benjamin’s 17 Silver Dollar City craftsmanship awards. Photo credit: J. Heston<\/p><\/div>\n

He and his wife, Janice, moved to Branson from the Quincy, Illinois, area in 1993, when Joe was invited by Silver Dollar City to become a full-time craftsmanship demonstrator.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey liked the black-and-white art that I did, the old-time scenes,\u201d he remembers.<\/p>\n

Those old-time scenes have set Joe apart. Many folks make a point of collecting his meticulous renditions of mills, old barns, and beloved Silver Dollar City landmarks like the Wilderness Blacksmith Shop.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeveral others have done artwork of the Wilderness Church because it is a landmark,\u201d Joe explains, \u201cBut I don’t think anybody has done work like this to the extent I have. I\u2019ve drawn probably 15 or 20 buildings on park.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Sullivan\u2019s Mill, Silver Dollar City. Photo credit: J. Heston<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThe homestead and the church were actual log cabins that were moved into this area. They were taken apart log-by-log and rebuilt; to me, that\u2019s a great goal for Silver Dollar City to take the time for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pen and ink drawing, the slow process of creating an image from tiny dots and dashes of ink, is not a dying art, notes Joe, but rarely do artists of this medium work in such scale.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the work I do is in 16×20 inch size and each picture can take anywhere from 50 to 100 hours to complete. The way artists are now, they\u2019re looking to find something fast. I do this because I enjoy it; and I\u2018m never a hurry-up artist!\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe is not the only one to enjoy the art.<\/p>\n

This correspondence course graduate of Norman Rockwell\u2019s Famous Artists\u2019 School is the recipient of no less than 17 Silver Dollar City craftsmanship awards, including Best New Heirloom Product and the Living Treasure Award.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve been a real stickler for detail,\u201d Joe notes.<\/p>\n

Originally published December 31, 2007<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Joe Benjamin\u2019s Silver Dollar City Awards:<\/h3>\n

Best New Product Award & Best New Heirloom Award (both voted on by the visiting public): 1997, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, & 2007<\/p>\n

Living Treasure Award: 2003<\/p>\n

Silver Dollar City’s Craftsman Hall of Fame: 2006<\/p>\n

\u00a9StateoftheOzarks.net2007, December 31, 2007<\/h2>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Joe Benjamin by Joshua Heston Pen and ink artist, Joe Benjamin, is not only extraordinarily talented, but also one of the nicest of folks you’ll ever hope to meet. He and his wife, Janice, moved to Branson from the Quincy, Illinois, area in 1993, when Joe was invited by Silver Dollar City to become…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[950,938,949,582],"tags":[1223,1224,855,1225],"class_list":["post-7385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ozarkcraftsmanship","category-ozarkeditorial","category-ozarkfinearts","category-sotoarchive","tag-joe-benjamin","tag-pen-and-ink","tag-silver-dollar-city","tag-wilderness-church","category-950","category-938","category-949","category-582","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7385"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7394,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7385\/revisions\/7394"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}