Calligrapher, Stonecutter, And Journeyman, Nick Benson

1.  What's your name and business name? ​Where are you located, city, ​state, country location?

My name is Nicholas Benson and I am the owner and operator of the John Stevens Shop, founded in 1705 in Newport, Rhode Island, USA.

2. What's your educational and professional background, i.e., college, professional school, high school, apprenticeship?

I spent one year as an undergrad at SUNY Purchase studying design, followed by an intensive 10 month program of foundational calligraphic, type design and general designcourses at the Kunst Gewerbeschule, Basel Switzerland. I then returned to Newport, resuming work as a journeyman with my father John Benson in The John Stevens Shop.

3. Preferred tool or tools and medium?

Broad edge brush on paper and stone, and mallet and chisel in slate, marble, limestone and granite.

4. Where or how do you "recharge your creative battery," i.e., books, blogs, music, art, exercise, meditation, prayer, hobbies, interests?

Battery recharging occurs with Spotify and the execution of artistic calligraphic texts in a thread of process that is in contemplation of the ever evolving Information Age. These texts are carved into stone with mallet and chisel.

5. Tell us something about you that might surprise or delight us.

Had I not been an artisan / artist I would have been an actor.