Behind the Shop: How Heather Benjamin Grew Her Art from Prints to a Full-Time Career

Shop Highlights:

Site: https://heatherbenjamin.bigcartel.com/

Sells: Zines, Art, Prints

Location: NYC

Selling on BC since: 2012

Plan: Platinum

Template: Sunscreen

Integrations: Pirate Ship

Welcome to Behind the Shop, where standout sellers in the Big Cartel community share their insights and experiences. In our Behind the Shop series, our resident artist and Big Cartel team member Ana Armengod brings you candid interviews with artists and creatives who balance making beautiful things with running their online businesses. In this edition, we talk to Heather Benjamin, an artist whose journey began with self-published zines and has grown into a thriving career spanning paintings, prints, and wearable art. Heather shares how she’s built her business, navigated pricing her work, and stayed true to her creative process along the way.

"Look around at what other artists are doing and cobble together something that works for you based on what you’re seeing around you that seems to work and feels good for you ethically as well. There is no guidebook for this... Don’t be afraid to try things, and don’t be too afraid of failure, either." - Heather Benjamin

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your art medium?

My name is Heather Benjamin. I’m an artist, and I mostly make paintings on canvas and paper. I make a lot of drawings as well. I also self-publish books and zines of my work, which I’ve been doing since 2008, when I made my first photocopied drawing zines. I use Big Cartel for selling clothes, merchandise, and other objects that use my drawings or are designed by me.

What has shaped and inspires your art? 

I was one of those kids who was always drawing and doodling on everything ever since I was really young. I got really into Sailor Moon at 8 years old, which is when I first felt some direction in the art I was making. I had some of the original manga books too—I was so inspired by the artwork and I started drawing fanart. 

I started coming up with my own characters that were just shameless ripoffs: girl superheroes drawn in the same manga style. I filled up notebooks drawing my own manga comics, starring the supergirls I had come up with, and I think it really helped me develop my drawing skills. As I got older, I gathered more and more influences. In high school, I was exposed to underground comics, outsider art, and all kinds of weirdo stuff that really started to shape my interests. The beginning stages of the work I make now, finding my voice, really started around when I was 17.

I really admire how personal your art is, yet it's still so easy for everyone to connect with because of your unique style and design. When you're creating art or working on a zine, do you consider how people will interpret it?

I really don’t consider their interpretation at all, and I truly never have. My work is personal, and so is the process of creating it. I only really focus on my experience of what I’m trying to make and how I’m feeling. I guess the word for my process would be "intuitive." I don’t usually even think about what I’m trying to say or express with a piece, it just sort of happens and takes shape as it goes. 

I just follow where it’s taking me and make decisions based very much on gut feelings. When I’m done, I can sit back and kind of read the story and interpret it, like "Oh, that’s what this part means,” or “That’s where that part came from." Kind of like interpreting a dream. I often feel like I am interpreting my work not long before everyone else does. Before then, I’m just really caught up in making it, which is always a very non-linear experience for me.

How did you get into selling your work? It's a difficult decision for artists. There are many things to think about, like whether to sell prints or focus on selling original paintings. 

I started out only selling my little photocopied zines for $3 at art book fairs. I eventually raised the price to $4. When I would table at art book fairs, which can be chaotic and loud, people would ask, “How much are these?” And I’d go “$3,” and then people would say “Thanks!” and take one and walk away. I realized they thought I was saying “free,” because of the noise. So I raised the price to $4, and I did not change that for a really long time.

At some point, people started asking me if I had the original drawings from the zines for sale. They were all micron pen drawings on 8.5 x 11 printer paper. I would sell them anytime anyone asked, because it was exciting to make money off drawings I had already made. At that time, I made money doing all kinds of odd jobs on Craigslist, so anything to get me away from that sounded great. 

I would sell those drawings from $25-$75 at first. As people got to know my work more, and I started working larger, using better supplies, things like that, I brought my prices up. It’s hard to know how to price your work unless you have some kind of art world mentor that you talk to about those kinds of things, which I never had. So pricing always felt sort of arbitrary. Now, I sell original works at a higher price point, and I also make prints of some of my works and sell those at a more affordable price point. I always want to have something available for anyone at any price point, if they want it—I never want to be completely inaccessible. I don’t constantly have prints available but do small editions every few months or at least once a year.

Do you have any advice for people who are just getting started selling their work?

I would say look around at what other artists are doing and cobble together something that works for you, based on what you’re seeing that seems to work and feels good for you ethically. There is no guidebook for this, or if there is, it’s fake. It’s all arbitrary and based on what you are trying to achieve personally. Don’t be afraid to try things, and don’t be too afraid of failure, either. I have definitely priced things way too high, too low, and made all kinds of other mistakes. That’s always a bummer, but it’s through years of experimenting with what works and staying plugged in to what other people are doing that you can figure this out for yourself.

You've been a Big Cartel seller since 2012! You started on the free plan and later upgraded to a paid plan. Why the change?

When I upgraded, it was because the free membership only allowed me to list a very small number of products—I think it was like three or something. After a few years, I got to the point where I had more products I was selling at once and wanted to have them all up at the same time. Things were going well, and I was enjoying making things and selling them online, so I felt inspired to do that more. It was time to make more space for me to have more products listed online.

Do you collaborate with other artists? 

I have collaborated with other artists in the past, but it has been a little while since I’ve done that. For me, it really has to be the right fit. I have a very solitary practice and don’t feel called to mesh my work with other artists that often. 

When I have done it and felt great about it, it’s usually been with people who are not only artists that I admire and love, but also people who are good friends of mine like Emma Kohlmann and Alex Heir. There is a level of closeness beyond just being collaborators, which I think makes it easier for me, and turns out a richer end result.

You do a lot of art book fairs. Do you think having a presence in those spaces changes the way people see your art as attainable?

Yes, one of the reasons I love doing art book fairs is that I think it keeps my work feeling somewhat more accessible to people in terms of price point. I also love the ability for people to walk up to a table and buy something and walk away with it—that isn’t something you get at a gallery. The instant gratification and lower price point that a book fair provides feels like a nice counterbalance to the fine art world, which can feel very gate-kept to people who aren’t collectors. It’s also awesome to get to table the fairs myself and meet so many people in person who my work resonates with; that is something I never get tired of.

Heather’s journey from making $3 zines to running a thriving online shop is proof that you can turn your passion into a sustainable business. Whether you're just starting out or ready to scale up, Big Cartel makes it easy to showcase your art and connect with buyers—without the hassle.

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