{"id":3533,"date":"2009-12-31T13:07:41","date_gmt":"2009-12-31T18:07:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/?p=3533"},"modified":"2013-02-11T20:40:11","modified_gmt":"2013-02-12T01:40:11","slug":"an-interview-with-david-benson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/news\/2009\/12\/31\/an-interview-with-david-benson\/","title":{"rendered":"An interview with David Benson"},"content":{"rendered":"

To mark the new year, Raleigh Public Record’s Chrystal Bartlett sat down with the artist who created the acorn the city drops each first night. David Benson also owns Third Place Coffee on Glenwood Avenue.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Raleigh
\nDavid Benson designed the acorn the city drops each New Year’s Eve, he’s also the owner of Third Place Coffee on Glenwood Avenue. Photo by Chrystal Bartlett.<\/center><\/p>\n

Why an acorn? Why not a tree for the City of Oaks?<\/em><\/p>\n

The City of Oaks<\/a>, yeah, they\u2019ve already got trees, but they didn\u2019t have an acorn.\u00a0 You know John Watkins came up with the concept. His wife was on the board of directors for the Raleigh Bicentennial<\/a>, and he was the head of marketing research and planning, MRP Associates. So she was the treasurer of the Bicentennial commission and they wanted some concept to sell Raleigh to the people.\u00a0 It was the 200th<\/sup> anniversary for Raleigh so they said, \u201cWell, we need something,\u201d and Raleigh\u2019s name is, it\u2019s always been \u201cThe city of Oaks,\u201d so John came up with the concept of an acorn. So he came by and ran it by me and I said, \u201cYeah, that\u2019s a great idea.\u201d And then he asked if I could build one and I said \u201cYeah, sure I can build it.\u201d So then they ran it by the Bicentennial Commission and then everybody got on board with it, and so we built it. <\/em><\/p>\n

How did you get the gig? There was no RFP (Request for Proposal) or a grant process? <\/em><\/p>\n

No, it\u2019s all in who you know, right? John had done another, previous to this, he did an event for recycling and they needed an award to hand out to these people, and I had an office, an artist\u2019s studio right near him and I\u2019m the only one in the building that even had something even remotely close to what he was wanting, and so he says, \u201cCan you make something out of recycled materials like Coke cans and stuff like that?\u00a0 I don\u2019t want any beers cans or anything like that, just recycled materials to make an award.\u201d I said, \u201cYeah, sure I can do that.\u201d So he gave me a budget and I said, \u201cYeah I can do that.\u201d\u00a0 And so I made this award and it was presented, and then a few months later, it might have been a year later, he said \u201cCan you make this acorn?\u201d He told me the whole concept and so we went through that and that\u2019s how I got the commission.<\/p>\n

So did they have a pre-set budget?\u00a0 Or did you tell them, \u201cYou want an acorn? This is how much it will cost?\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

They had a budget in mind and you know, we had to get together on the budget.\u00a0 I think the budget was $20,000 or something like that.\u00a0 But John wasn\u2019t selling me on the idea that I was going to make a living off it.\u00a0 He was selling me on the idea that he was going to make me famous and I just said,\u201d I don\u2019t really care about that, I\u2019d just rather have the money,\u201d because I\u2019m an artist and I never had health insurance at the time, either, so I was just looking to make a living and that\u2019s how I make my living, to make art.<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

If you had to do it all over again, would you? If so, why; if not, why not?<\/em><\/p>\n

Yeah, sure. It was good. I\u2019ve had a good run, I\u2019ve been really lucky.<\/p>\n

This is not your statue; it belongs to the City of Raleigh, right?<\/em><\/p>\n

It belonged to the Bicentennial Committee and the Bicentennial Committee gave it to the City of Raleigh.<\/p>\n

O.K., the City of Raleigh owns it, so how does it come out looking so good every year? It seems like you are involved in the maintenance.\u00a0 Is this a labor of love or do they actually pay you to maintain the nut? <\/em><\/p>\n

Yeah, I get paid to maintain it. You know, it\u2019s pretty reasonable.\u00a0 Artsplosure gets sponsors to clean it and I guess I sponsor it in a way, so I guess I could get paid more\u2026.<\/p>\n

So you\u2019ve never had a party and just had people clean that nut for you?<\/em><\/p>\n

Oh, I have, I have.<\/p>\n

I’ve heard stories about those polishing parties, David. Do you really make people rub a section before they can drink a beer?<\/em><\/p>\n

No, no that\u2019s total bullshit! But, you know, that\u2019s not a bad idea. I think I may do that this year.\u00a0 I\u2019ve had it at carwashes, taken it to inside and ruined the floor of the old Civic Center.<\/p>\n

What do you do to clean it?<\/em><\/p>\n

I use phosphoric acid, basically. It\u2019s what they use to clean the kegs and stuff for beer making. You know how they make beer and they have those big vats that are copper?\u00a0\u00a0 Well Gary Greenshields, who used to own Greenshields, gave me this phosphoric acid one time and he said, \u201cThis is what you need, Dave.\u201d And I said \u201cO.K.\u201d So Gary gave me this stuff and I clean it and I said said, \u201cWow, this works great!\u201dThen you got to, you know, usually it\u2019s cold and this stuff works when it\u2019s warm, so if you\u2019re outside and it’s cold, then it doesn\u2019t work so well and you really have to work hard at it and really scrub it. But every year I find a way to make it just a little bit easier.<\/p>\n

\"Raleigh
\nThe city moves the acorn to drop it for First Night Raleigh last year. Photo by C. Duncan Pardo.<\/center><\/p>\n

So even though there are sponsor to do this, you maintain it?<\/em><\/p>\n

The sponsors pay money and then they pay for my materials to do it<\/p>\n

So you are getting paid to maintain even though you don\u2019t own it.<\/em><\/p>\n

What better person that the guy that created it, who made it?<\/p>\n

Now you own a coffee shop, <\/em>Third Place<\/em>, how does that fit in (or not fit in) with your life as an artist?<\/em><\/p>\n

Well, you know, I\u2019m a social person, so this fits in perfect. And what I liked about doing the art was, you\u2019re social, you\u2019re respectable, it was in the community and it\u2019s not tied to how successful you are money wise. But if you\u2019re an insurance salesman and you\u2019re a terrible insurance salesman but you still have to talk to lots of people and you don\u2019t sell much insurance, you don\u2019t\u00a0 get much respect, but as you\u2019re an artist, it\u2019s a little different. Everything\u2019s a different as an artist because, frankly, the more stuff you make, the higher the price. There is no point of diminishing returns with art, so if you\u2019re really prolific, you make more money, but if you make coat hangers, the more you make, you have to charge less for them. It\u2019s a whole different ways to think about things, that as an artist, you can get respect without having to own a big house, a nice car and have lots of money because they respect you for your talent as opposed to respecting you for what you\u2019ve done as far as making money.<\/p>\n

Your artistic career is not over, but you seem to be best known for this work. How does that make you feel, being known as “the acorn guy?”<\/em><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t really care, because that\u2019s my mark I don\u2019t really have to live up to anything anymore. You know, whatever I do, its O.K., there\u2019s no pressure, there\u2019s no pressure to succeed. All the pressure\u2019s gone, it\u2019s great.\u00a0 You know, I have a great life.<\/p>\n

Any plans on adding to the piece \u2013 will someone maybe commission a tree, a squirrel, etc? <\/em><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know. If someone wants me to build a squirrel, I\u2019ll certainly do it, but it would be really big, it’d be a huge squirrel now, wouldn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

It\u2019ll have to size up to that nut!<\/em><\/p>\n

Yeah. Actually I like the squirrel that they have in those Ice Age movies for kids.\u00a0 Because they have that big acorn that rolls around and that\u2019s pretty cool. There\u2019s this cute little acorn and those scats or scrats, I think they\u2019re called scrats, that try to catch that acorn and do stuff with it.<\/p>\n

How many people have asked you for smaller replicas? For the home? Lapel pins, perhaps?\u00a0\u00a0 Is there a sideline business opportunity there we don’t know about? <\/em><\/p>\n

Oh yeah. I should be doing a line of jewelry. When I started out, before sculpture, in art, I was a jeweler, so I still have quite a bit of that equipment at the house. I was making acorn earrings for while. It\u2019s an opportunity to make a killing, but apparently I\u2019m not interested in that.<\/p>\n

Tell me a little bit about making the acorn. Were the materials it is made of the ones you wanted to use or were they dictated by the budget?<\/em><\/p>\n

They were dictated by the budget. I wanted to do the internal structure with stainless steel, so I would not have to paint it and I\u2019m really lazy, but I had to use steel, because stainless was way expensive, so then I had to paint, which was a little more work, but less money.<\/p>\n

And the outside?<\/em><\/p>\n

Outside is copper and I had to order the bottom of it from a company, I don’t remember who it was. But I got these two big rolls of copper, that weighed 300 or 400 pounds apiece, and so when the truck got to Artspace I had to help unload it. And I didn\u2019t have any gloves, so I cut my hand really bad, and so, I said \u201cOh well, you just keep going, right?\u201d And then, I cut all that out, and then I cut my finger again with a saw, and cut the end of it off, but I masking taped it back together and kept on working. And then, I was standing inside the acorn, because had it on its side and was spinning it, because it was easier to do, and I stood on the edge of it and it spun and then I cut my shoulder really bad. I kept getting hurt on that job, but you know, we got it done. And then the top part of the copper came from just roofing sheets.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t know what to call those, so we called them acornites, we made up a word.\u00a0 You know the texture on the top of the acorn, it\u2019s actually an acorn cap, but those little things, there\u2019s no name for those, you know, because there are those little sections, I couldn\u2019t name for them anywhere, nobody knew, so we called them aconites, which is something else, I don\u2019t know what it is.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re probably going to get a call about this from the State botany department<\/em><\/p>\n

Yeah, I\u2019d be happy to know what it is.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve seen a variety of answers to this question, but you tell me, \u201cHow much does it weigh?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

I think it weighs twelve hundred and fifty pounds.\u00a0 Well what happens, see, is that the crane comes in and those cranes are really expensive products and they are donated by Earl Johnson III. He donates his crane time.\u00a0 They used to own Carolina Crane and now they own another crane company, but he has donated a crane every year. He is one of the best sponsors that the acorn has ever had. And those cranes weight the acorn, because they have to know what they\u2019re picking up and so it\u2019s always weighed 1,250 pounds.<\/p>\n

Do you ever worry about the cranes and the acorn, maybe it\u2019s going to drop?<\/em><\/p>\n

Every year. Every year. I put safety chains on it, open it up inside, check it for rust. And I ask these guys, the crane guys, \u201cWhat happens if it falls?\u201d\u00a0 He goes, \u201cIt come straight down, straight down.\u201d So I go, \u201cO.K.\u201d So we don\u2019t stand underneath it.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s talk about your non-sculpture business, the Third Place Coffee shop.\u00a0 How\u2019s business been lately? You seeing any dip from the recession?<\/em><\/p>\n

Yeah, it dipped last year and up until the first few months of this year, and then all of a sudden it started to pick up after Valentines, I guess. So it\u2019s been a steady rise since then, since February. People talk about things like the economy and they\u2019re doing this and that or whatever, but if you can actually see it, then that\u2019s better.\u00a0 I\u2019m a big proponent of show me, don\u2019t tell me<\/p>\n

Have you had more job applicants? <\/em><\/p>\n

Oh yeah, yeah.\u00a0 I\u2019ve gotten great job applicants!\u00a0 And I\u2019ve got great employees.\u00a0 My employees are fabulous and I think that part of it.\u00a0 Jobs have gotten tighter.\u00a0 I had a girl the other day just walk away from the job because she told me she needed money, and I said \u201cO.K.\u201d and then she said, \u201cI\u2019m taking the day off.\u201d and I thought, \u201cWow, that\u2019s weird.\u201d And then she quit. I think she expected me to hire her back, but making a bad choice like that, I don\u2019t want people who make bad choices working for me, so of course I did not call her back, because if she\u2019s been making bad choices for herself, she\u2019s just going to continue that practice with me, so she was showing me that she wasn\u2019t making the right choices. So I get a lot of people who make good choices, and that\u2019s who I look for, whatever they show me is what I go with.<\/p>\n

I think everybody here appreciates a job.\u00a0 They do pretty well, they make pretty good tips and customer service has shot way up and they care more. The biggest thing is that people who work for you might not like the customers; some customers give you a hard time.\u00a0 I try to tell them, \u201cLook this customer is going to pay you.\u00a0 You\u2019re actually the most important person here, because you have to make sure that customer comes back.\u00a0 So they can shop here and support us. So you want them to support you, so you can stay working and keep your job.\u201d It\u2019s pretty simple, but people don\u2019t always understand it.<\/p>\n

What’s it like owning a small business in Raleigh? As opposed to your sculpture business? What\u2019s the difference between coffee and the art?<\/em><\/p>\n

Coffee is a lot more work, a lot more work. It\u2019s more than I\u2019ve ever worked before in my whole life. I mean, this is hard work.\u00a0\u00a0 Sculpture is fun! You know, you go out, you go to a bar and you drink , you talk to a few people, they call you the next day and say, \u201cOh yeah, can you make me a gate?\u201dOr, \u201cCan you make me a yard art?\u201d And I\u2019d go, \u201cYeah, sure.\u201d But this way, they just, you know, you get it a nickel at a time.<\/p>\n

So, what\u2019s it like owning a small business in Raleigh versus, say, any other town?<\/em><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never owned a small business in another town. But Raleigh\u2019s my home, so I really like it. I\u2019m really community oriented. And because, when you look at First Night<\/a>, it really brings a community together once a year for a non-alcoholic event and I guess the non alcohol part was good, it can get families out there. And you know, I don\u2019t have any problems with that, but I carry that on all year long at the coffee shop, it\u2019s a community place.\u00a0 The Third place, the concept is that you have home, you have work and a third place, which is where you hang out to decompress. You know, home is sometimes stressful, work can be stressful and so you just need some place to just go, it\u2019s like a neighborhood bar like in Europe, you go to a pub, you know, and you see all your friends and you hang out, and so that\u2019s what this is like.<\/p>\n

So, where do you when you need a break? <\/em><\/p>\n

I just come here and go to work. I mean, it\u2019s stressful, but you know, when people say, \u201cHow do you do it?\u201d I go, \u201cI\u2019ve got a short memory.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the question I should have asked, but didn\u2019t. The one someone always should have asked you about, but never does about the acorn.<\/em><\/p>\n

That\u2019s a tough question. It\u2019s the people\u2019s sculpture, you know. It doesn\u2019t belong to the city. Everybody thinks the city owns it, but it\u2019s the people\u2019s sculpture, they own it.\u00a0 So it\u2019s a symbol for – what does it mean – other than it\u2019s a symbol for the city of Raleigh and it\u2019s an icon, but it means for people to get together. It\u2019s a means for people to get together; it\u2019s always brought out to bring people together, so it\u2019s a focal point of socializing with people.\u00a0 And on a real scale, too. It\u2019s not like Facebook where, you know, you chat with people and you Twitter or whatever.\u00a0 You are physically there with other people and you are hanging out at the acorn. And it\u2019s in a park (Moore Square) with a lot of bums and it\u2019s done pretty well out there and, I mean no one has really vandalized it, so, yeah, I guess that\u2019s really the question is, \u201c Is that what Raleigh is about?\u201d and I guess yeah, I guess it is.<\/p>\n

Hanging out?<\/em><\/p>\n

Hanging out, yeah. Community<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chrystal Bartlett talks to David Benson, the designer of the Raleigh acorn the city drops on New Year’s Eve and the owner of Third Place coffee shop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3533"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24019"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3533\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}