POULSBO, Wash. — “I'm always trying to think positive thoughts when I am doing my artwork,” says Cory Bennet Anderson, a pop artist with a positive vibe who likes to use vibrant colors when he paints portraits of iconic celebrities in his garage studio.
“Pop iconic art is really what I'm going for,” he says. “I try to find an icon that has done something special with their voice and really stood out for something that matters. It inspires me to say ‘Hey if they have a voice and they used it for positivity I can do the same’.”
In his backyard he’s putting the finishing touches on a portrait of Maya Angelou.
“Gotta love Maya Angelou,” he says. “She gives me the love in my heart to be the artist that I am."
He shakes a can of spray paint. Then Anderson covers the portraits thoroughly. Piece by piece, he removes strips of paper to reveal the subject. Look closely and you’ll likely see a map somewhere in the portrait. That's one of Anderson’s trademarks.
“I try to use maps from places I’ve lived but I will also use them from the icon’s location,” Anderson says.
How does an artist stay so positive? Anderson says he credits his children, two year old Bennett and five year old Evalyn. Both like to join him in his studio.
“I try to involve the kids because, oh man, they know how to get messy,” Anderson laughs. “They know how to have fun, so I am almost learning from them you know?”
Anderson is not the kind of artist who likes to work in self isolation.
“I get an elevated feeling when I have other people around,” he says.
In the summer of 2018 Anderson invited 150 people to help him paint a colorful mural on a public maintenance shed in Poulsbo. It became a little arts festival.
“It was really cool to see everybody smiling, having so much fun,” he says. “Now every time somebody passes that mural they don't say ‘Oh Cori Bennett Anderson did that beautiful mural’ they say ‘I did that mural’.”
Anderson’s murals also appear in a co-working space called Vibe Co-Works. At the entrance you’ll see one featuring a little girl that may look familiar. That’s Evalyn, who is busy helping her dad with a new portrait of R&B guitarist Jimmy James.
“It's like opening a gift on Christmas,” he says.
"Yeah!" exclaims his daughter.
"Jimmy just inspires me so much through music to go out and be a part of my community,” Anderson says, “ and to collaborate with other people that maybe I wouldn't have collaborated with.”
Cory Bennet Anderson is more than Poulsbo's best known pop artist. He’s an artist with a positive message.
“I want people to know that I am a positive guy trying to spread positivity,” he says. “I think it's so easy to focus on the negative but we need to focus on the positive things.”
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