Design
An Artist's Dark But Loving Graphic Ode to Suburbia
Artist Ben Tolman creates incredibly intricate drawings that dig for the heart beneath the hard edges of the built environment.
Ben Tolman doesn't hate the suburbs. Not exactly. He's finally come to terms with the place where he grew up. It took him six months.
That's how long Tolman, an artist from Washington, D.C., spent drawing his monumental exegesis, Suburbs, in 2012. More than six feel tall and four feet wide, Suburbs is Tolman's interpretation of the Wheaton, Maryland, community he called his home as a kid. Composing the drawing took six months: five days a week, 14 hours each day, just ink and paper and repetition.