Meet Benny Tipton | I’m me

We had the good fortune of connecting with Benny Tipton and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Benny, do you have a favorite quote or affirmation?
Someone I love dearly from time to time has asked me, “What’s the next right thing ?”. To me, it reminds me to be present. There is only right now. Beyond the present, there is only my imagination of the future and a skewed memory of the past. If I do the next right thing I’m better prepared for whatever comes next and I can’t move forward when I’m looking over my shoulder.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Well, I think it art is just about an expression of my vision of something within. For me that looks like design, art direction, photography, painting, drawing or writing. The goal I suppose is I am satisfied with the expression and that it keeps leading me in the direction that I’m supposed to be headed and introduce me to my people along the way. I don’t feel like I am original in anyway, I just want to present the way I see and understand things through my lens. In hindsight it feels like a lot of stumbling in the right direction. I have always done things my way. I have no formal education. I dropped out of school in 9th grade. Yet, somehow I have managed to make a comfortable living by being creative for the last few years. I think life is challenging for everyone and to persist is key. I have to be creative because I don’t know what else I would do. I still question myself at times too maybe I will end up at the post office down the road but I will never quit being creative. I believe flipping burgers in the back of a bar in my early 30’s for minimum wage led me to where I am today. Responsibility is very cool to me, my ability to respond to life no matter what is in front of me. “The next right thing.”
I didn’t always think like this either though. I have always seemed to learn best “the hard way” lol. One thing I have alway tried to do with art is make myself and others smile. Once I designed a shirt kind of as a joke. It took off! Instead of just letting it do it’s thing and keep moving forward…I held on to it. I stopped in my dead in tracks and tried to figure out what “YOU” were interested in, instead of what I was interested in and before I knew it I was lost. It took me a couple years to find myself again. I had to let go of it and get back to right now. I feel successful in that I get to do what I do and it pays the bills I can take care of my family. I love photography and sharing the beauty I see in lowriders or the candid smiles of a favorite artist. I can design an album cover or tour poster for a Grammy award winning artist and design a flyer for a kids birthday party up the street. I get to design t-shirts for bands that 10 year old me would absolutely lose it over. I think the things I value the most in my life, I have to give away in order to keep them. I takes me to places I never could have imagined that I would be. I get to meet amazing people everywhere. I feel useful, I feel connection. All my mistakes and regrets have purpose here. Nothing worthwhile ever comes in the package I was expecting. When I am present absolutely anything is possible.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Picking up Tacorrido for chilaquiles for breakfast or Austin Diner for Lauras Big Time or a skillet. Take a walk around the neighborhood. Hit Epoch for Coffee. Jump in the 1970 Buick Lesabre head out on a little day trip to Lockhart for Smitty’s Market or Taylor For Louie Muller BBQ or maybe Coopers in Llano. Get back home maybe mid afternoon. If it’s 103 out we’ll take a dip at Deep Eddy. Stop at Pool Burger after they can have a cocktail and I will have a Shirley Temple. Next we are headed back to the North Side for Nuevo Mexico or Titayas for dindin. Hit Kinda tropical after for Tough Enough Park and Hang. Uptown Cruise in the lowly at the Domain and check out some of the shops. Check out Room Service on Northloop for your vintage house wears. Hit Pop for great vintage clothing. Definitely going to need to hit Home Slice or Love Supreme for some of the best pizza in town. Little Deli in Crestview for the Harrys Perfect Pastrami. Busty’s Bar and Jukebox as well as Austin’s finest Honkey Tonk, the White Horse for some two stepping and more Shirley Temples and Lone Star Beer. Go Karts out at the F1 Track. Drop by the Lightnin Bar in Elgin. Chop it up with Theron at Caps Automotive and see what he’s workin on. . Hopefully it’s not my Buick! Paddleboarding on Ladybird. Soak up the sun and instantly cure their hangover in the soothing waters of Barton Springs. Hang out on a blanket with the pups and a good book at Zilker Park. Watch the sun set on the city at Mount Bonell. They are probably gonna sweat from the heat, humidity and all that BBQ! So, I recommend taking a shower at some point.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My brother Troy N.

Website: https://Lowsinthe70s.com

Instagram: @lowsinthe70s @bennyfromtexas

Youtube: @lowsinthe70s

Image Credits
Beck photo by Autumn de Wilde
Cults photo by Shervin