The Snowboarder's Journal - The Snowboarder's Journal 19.1
ANY WHICH WAY: Ben Poechman’s Intersectional Progression
2021-09-27 15:09:42
“With a little shoveling just off the groomed run at Whistler-Blackcomb, BC, Ben Poechman made something out of a spot most people pass by without a second glance.
Photo: Ben Girardi
For Ben Poechman, snowboarding and art are reciprocal. The playful, rhythmically arcing lines the Walkerton, ON native weaves on hill lend more than inspiration to his painting and stone carving—he engages each medium as if rehearsing for the other two. Over the past three years, the 29-year-old has laid foundations for a sustainable career in the arts, selling carvings and paintings through galleries, shows and stylized social media campaigns. It’s also coincided with an uptick in industry recognition of Ben’s snowboarding. Since opening up artistically, Ben’s had two magazine covers as a rider and been invited on international trips with his sponsors. But finding this new presence required a shift in mindset that tapped into perspective he gained through snowboarding.
Ben grew up on an organic egg farm, the second youngest of six siblings. “My oldest brother, Matthew, was always an artist,” Ben says. “As a little kid I’d look through his sketchbooks. His drawings were so realistic. I would try to draw and I just sucked. Comparing myself to him I just assumed I wasn’t artistic, and as a kid I focused on athletics.”
Athletics meant soccer and basketball, until Ben strapped in for the first time. He was 8, piggybacking on his brother Nate’s school ski trip. It was the start of an obsession. Through his teenage years, Ben did what he could to bring the mountains to his rural Ontario existence. He stacked firewood and sheets of plywood to make ramps around the farm. He started getting clips as part of the Trash League crew. Though his riding kept improving, support from sponsors was elusive—until 2015, that is, when he put out a low-key edit called “Selfiestickman,” made with a gifted selfie stick and point-and-shoot camera. Filmed solo and largely at the Poechman farm, the video resonated. “That probably opened up new pathways in my brain,” Ben muses. “It showed me that you can look at progression as a one-way street, or you can see it as an intersection, and you can go any which way.”
In 2017, Ben was three years into living seasonally in Whistler, spending springs and summers riding park in the freestyle mecca and winters back home. That year, he answered a Craigslist ad posted by Whistler stone carver John Fathom. John needed someone to carve bulk quantities of three-inch-tall Inukshuks, inventory for his gallery in a high-end Whistler hotel. Ben was offered a three-month probationary employ, to be spent carving basic, repetitive forms. He learned the fundamentals quickly and John brought him on full-time. Before long, the creative urges that had turned his family farm into a snowboard park began to surface. “The Inukshuks weren’t my design,” Ben says. “I hadn’t felt the spark I get from snowboarding yet—it was still more or less just a job.”
The opportunity to push it further came with an offcut. “One of the senior artists at our studio was carving a life-sized polar bear out of a huge piece of marble—a 6,000-pound piece of stone—and as he was carving the base, he had to take off maybe a 350-pound section. The piece that broke off spoke to me—it put an image of a tree in my head. He gave me the piece and I started to carve ‘Chili Tree.’”
With ‘Chili Tree,” Ben sought to encapsulate the radiant interpretation of nature he saw in late Whistler artist Chili Thom’s paintings. As he worked, he felt his tools move more like his snowboard, exploring and expressing as they followed his creative impulses. Ben worked on the piece for months, falling in love with the process as he peeled away and shaped the stone. “You get lost, working for hours straight without drinking water or taking a break,” he says.
The following summer, Ben picked up acrylics. He painted mountains and trees, confidently showing pieces and even live painting within months of his first brushstrokes. “It came back to what I learned from ‘Selfiestickman,’ honestly,” Ben says. “It doesn’t have to be the hardest thing in the world, the most detailed or the best quality. It just has to be true, and it has to be you. And if I can make what’s in my head truthfully, it resonates.”
Today, as Ben travels to ride—or stays at home, as he did this past winter, filming mostly on-hill at Whistler-Blackcomb for Home Hill—he sizes up the landscapes he encounters as if reading the natural contours of a stone. His riding is experimental, effervescent and focused on accenting what he finds in the mountains. His carving builds off “Chili Tree,” playing with the idiosyncrasies of different minerals with subtle shapes and textures. He paints on driftwood, canvas and skateboards, sharing visions of the Coast Mountains with vivid color.
Ben now works solely in art and snowboarding. He’s learned to move with the ebb and flow of sales and commissions and to utilize his social media presence to generate business. He donates partial proceeds to organizations like Protect Our Winters and Black Lives Matter. While an average piece sells for approximately $200 CAD, Ben’s gallery presence has also led to major sales as well— “Chili Tree” sold for $12,000 CAD.
“My dad used to tell me you can only do one thing really well,” Ben says, looking forward. “I’ve decided to be the best I can at three. I’ve got my work cut out for me and I think there’s a lot of development to happen. I don’t think I’ve perfected my style yet, whatever that means, but I also believe it’s an ever-evolving journey. Maybe I’m not doing as many spins in the future, or carving the biggest piece of stone, but focusing on adding more character to it. Progression is an intersection, and there’s value in finding something different.”
©Funny Feelings LLC. View All Articles.