ben conservato – cloak and dagger V3
“I did struggle with taking photos at first; for someone who studied photography, it kind of baffled me that I couldn’t get it right.” So says Sydney-based Emma Kidd, artist, illustrator, printmaker, zine maker, and photographer, and the face behind Ben Conservato. She thinks she’s figured it out though – “Plain old white background and natural light never fails.”
Emma started drawing monsters “Because I don’t draw people perfectly. It just became more and more monsters… and sea creatures.” Her characters are whimsical and mostly friendly (but I wouldn’t want to meet some of them in a dark alley), and her menagerie has extended to include lots of wings – winged horses, monkeys, and men, and birds that don’t wish to fly at all.
ben conservato – orange birdman
“… apart from the time my mother, who worked at a business college, insisted I learn how to type.”
ben conservato – kingston – winged copper plumed horse
ben conservato – two characters from the 8 x paper doll pack
The name Ben Conservato came about originally when Emma started up a jam-making business after travelling through Italy a few times. “Well preserved” seemed the perfect name then, and she still loves it now. But it’s been a long {and sticky?} road between jam-making and illustration. Most of the time her journey has been a positive one, “Apart from the time my mother, who worked at a business college, insisted I learn how to type. … I’ve always been doing something in the creative, even if it is while I do some other job that I hope didn’t interfere with my own work. It sometimes does.”
ben conservato – four armed sea man
Emma has always drawn a lot, and was encouraged as a child to be creative and do what she loved even if it didn’t earn any money. She completed an Associate Diploma in Fine Arts, specialising in photography and printmaking. “There I discovered photographic etching and at the time, in 1998, it changed my world.” She also completed a graphic design certificate a few years back. “I thought it’ll be good, it’ll be creative. But when you’re sitting there and doing work for other people and they’ll want you to make their logo bigger or use comic sans or something horrible. Then when you get home you’ll think ‘I’m going to paint now’, but I just have no idea what to do because I’m drained.” So, she says she mostly keeps hospitality as her fall-back position – “It is something I can do and rarely bring it home to the point I am unable to do my own work.”
ben conservato – cockatoo on a night adventure (without his wings)
“My workspace is generally (apart from the piles around our small flat) a stand-up desk in the corner of my once workroom, that is now my son’s room. He is only 2.4 years old, so he can’t kick me out yet, or at least hasn’t tried. It is messy and sometimes frustrating, but I like there is a place I can leave all my paint there, pieces of creatures and other things without having to put them away. I can paint things in passing throughout the day if there is limited time. I tend to work when he is doing his half day at “school” and when he sleeps.”
“In the business, I tend to try to do everything myself. There are times we all financially struggle doing our own work and trying to stick to it. There are definitely low points in the year.” But it’s still worth it. “The best bit is being able to create and actually get some type of recognition that that is my style.”
ben conservato – shallows and deep sea – 5 piece nesting doll set
What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
“Don’t let graphic design kill your style.”
You can find more of Emma’s wonderful work in her Etsy shop, BenConservato. And I totally urge you to check out this lovely video about her as well.