Interview with LEVI LEVINSON & JORDAN THOMPSON OF BENDY KNEES, 2024 MOSS ROCK FESTIVAL Featured Artists
How did you two meet?
Jordan – Well doesn’t this world just prove to be small as HECK sometimes? Here’s a short story for ya. Even though we’re from complete opposite sides of the country, we ended up with the SAME best friend in our high school days here in Alabama. Levi moved to Birmingham, from Ruidoso, New Mexico, when she was fifteen and in true new, cool kid on the block fashion, stole my best friend!! So naturally, in my fifteen year old mind, I decided I didn’t like her at all and then our friend chose her and we went about our lives for the next ten years. (Ouch, I know! Bandaids will be accepted at the festival this year.) Flash forward to 2016, I was working in a late night dive bar in town and she walked in, we exchanged snap chats over a shot of tequila and the rest is history!
Levi – You’re so funny. I’ll take it from here.
At the time, I was working at Trader Joes as a sign painter, which led me to doing multiple chalkboards at local restaurants and bars around town. Being a sign painter was so much math and planning and the bigger the jobs got, the more equipment I had to carry around, so I pulled Jordy along here and there. After a few years, one thing led to another and then, she’s helpin’ me with taxes, chalkboard math, AND answering emails?! I always knew that I was going to do everything I could to figure out how to become a full time artist, Jordy just helped make it a reality. Once we started this whole thing, I think we both knew we had stumbled into something really beautiful. Then, when we decided to go big / large scale, we officially filed for a business license as Bendy Knees Design Company! That’s when we should say the rest is history.
How long has Bendy Knees Design been creating murals?
Bendy Knees Design has been unofficially creating murals since 2018 and officially officially creating murals since 2020 with over 75+ murals under our tool belts!
Was there a catalyst to your entrance into the world of murals? What attracted you to this art form?
It was a perfect little mixture of Levi working at Trader Joes as a sign painter and Jordan having connections to local restaurants/bars that started our large scale menu / sign paintings. Eventually, we started adding some art to the menus and that turned into holiday window paintings and then we just couldn’t stop there!
How has the collaborative relationship between art and design informed or pushed the boundaries of your mural work?
Oh my gosh, great question! People don’t think about this end of large scale art until it’s happening right in front of their eyeballs, but murals can often challenge conventional notions of where art belongs by transforming underutilized or overlooked spaces into vibrant works of art. Sometimes the design of the existing space isn’t being used as it’s intended purpose and this is a perfect place to use a mural / public art installation!
There’s examples of this in our everyday lives, from downtown offices to city parks to dark alleyways and empty parking lots. Have you seen the historic buildings that have been transformed into multiple different versions of its original self? What about the ones that have hired an artist to come in and create wayfinding opportunities to help create a sense of place and recreate the places that fulfill the current business’s needs?
Or! Remember that alleyway that would be the perfect shortcut to your favorite restaurant, but it always felt a little questionable? What if one of the building owners paid a muralist to come and paint something bright and beautiful to liven up the alley? Maybe the city would partner to put a few lights through the alleyway. Heck, maybe even a bench! Sometimes as artists, we have to work with what we’re given, but after multiple years of recreating spaces through the collaborative relationship of art and design, shoot, I might say that it’s our favorite part!
Do each of you have specific roles in the mural making process?
Jordan – Yeah! I would say Levi is the lead designer and I’m the one behind the emails and proposals and website stuff / admin side of things. I’m more of a hands-on creator, so I’d say our market stuff is a little more split, but I do still enjoy the act of creating the set up over the act of creating inventory, if that makes sense. We both do a little bit of both things, but Levi touches all of our renderings before they go out and I edit everything else before it goes out! (Don’t roast me if there’s errors in here, muahaha.)
Levi – I’m not gonna sit here and say that I’M NOTTTT a particular Patricia, but I do like things how I like them and that just puts me in the position to be finalizing most of our designs! Jordy will sketch out an idea to about 55% and then look at me with puppy dog eyes and say “can you please help me finish this one?” and then I try my derndest! *insert giggles*
Did working in such large-scale come naturally?
Honestly, we’re super grateful to have been given the guidance we needed to make going bigger pretty seamless, but we’d be lying if we said we weren’t scared to start! This is a great segway to the next question.
Are there any special tricks, tech, or tools used in the process of creating such large-scale work?
Yeeeeah, buddy! The first time we saw someone throw up a doodle grid, we were star struck! A doodle grid is essentially a bunch of scribbles / smaller icons spray painted loosely across the space you’re painting. Then, you take a picture of the wall with the scribbles, upload it to Procreate, place your design on top of the doodle grid, but turn down the transparency, so you’re able to see the scribbles below your design. Bam! You’ve gridded out your design without having to create a perfect grid, or any grid at all.
We also aren’t strangers to using a projector to get a design, or sign painting up. Use your tools, people! It’s not cheating when a banker uses a calculator, is it? Your money is in the design, not in the installation.
How long does it typically take to create a mural from conception to completion?
There’s so many factors involved based on the scope of the project, but if the space is ready to go, a nice average is around 8 weeks. If the space isn’t ready to go, 3 – 4 months. It all just depends!
Is there an artist(s) or muralist(s) whose work you admire?
Local favorite :
Oh gosh, there’s so many! A Birmingham forever favorite of ours is Merrilee Challiss! Merrilee has always been such a guiding light in our practice and an incredible mentor to us for many years. Her work and continuous themes of interconnectedness have inspired us since we were young tots in the art world and we will forever be huge fans! Check her outttt!!!
https://www.instagram.com/merilka
Famous favorite :
We also renovated our whole house this year, so we’ve been tuning into some fun interior designers, like Dani Dazey!! Wild times in the neighborhood, because after watching her flip the Trixie Motel in Palm Springs, CA from our tv screens, we caught wind that she was hired by an Alabama couple to redesign their mid century modern lake house in Florence. So long story short, we reached out to let her know we were just down the highway to help if needed and yeehaw, here we are a year later and 2 projects down with Dani and her crew!
https://www.instagram.com/danidazey/?hl=en
How has being a women-queer owned business influenced your efforts, path, and projects?
Being a women-queer owned business in the south has uniquely influenced our paths and efforts in ways that we’re still processing on the daily. It’s a weird place to sit on the line of sometimes celebrated, sometimes hated, and the division is pretty equal in our little red state. It was always super important for us to advocate for visibility and foster community connections through public art and with that, we’ve been very grateful to have been given multiple opportunities to work with the queer community in Birmingham. By embracing our identity, we’ve totally enriched our artistic practice and given a bigger purpose to our mission of transforming public (and personal) spaces into vibrant expressions of identity and resilience.
Do you have a favorite mural project that you’ve created locally?
Jordan – Magic City Acceptance Academy was a real big moment for me. It’s hard to choose a favorite, but that one took my little heart and bursted it with joy over and over and over again. MCAA is a really, really big deal for Alabama and it was just so incredibly special to paint with their community. Growing up as a queer kid in the south was and STILL IS incredibly difficult, so to know that we have a FREE PUBLIC CHARTER school that was intentionally designed with incredible resources for our future generations – it gives me goosebumps. I’m incredibly honored to have been able to create a piece with them.
Levi – Gah, this is a hard one! We work with so many incredible clients that are doing so many amazing things, but I gotta give it to Ed Farm. I have a brother in Education, so being able to partner with a local nonprofit that’s making such monumental waves within schools makes my heart swell. Our intention behind our Ed Farm pieces is to promote a safer space where students are encouraged to creatively engage the senses in open-ended interpretations, as they explore new ways of tech based learning. A space where there are no expectations but to authentically be themselves & to push the boundaries of their imagination. Witnessing the impact first hand on students and faculty is so inspiring and has given me so much hope for the future of education. You can’t beat that feelin’! Our work is so fulfilling when we’re given the opportunity to make meaningful change and Ed Farm never fails to ace those opportunities to provide a profound impact on the students and educators of every single school they’re in.
Do you find balance between your mural and studio work? How do they complement each other?
They complement each other perfectly in our minds! Could we do more of one over the other at times, sure, but we’re truckin’ through this creative entrepreneur life one day at a time and are currently feeling incredibly grateful to be able to have time for both. The large scale murals and sign painting jobs are definitely the ones that pay the bills and we do have to put more attention on those projects, but it feels really nice to have figured out some sort of balance to be able to do studio work in the in betweens. It’s also important to us to be able to create art that is accessible to folks’ wallets and wall space! Some friends and supporters don’t have thousands of buckaroos to spend on a mural, or even hundreds of square feet in their space for one. Our studio practice gives us meditative time to create those “mini mural” opportunities that we sell at our holiday markets!
