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Ruckus Inc.
By: Chris Proctor
Chrisproctor@slugmag.com
All Photos/art: Courtesy of Ruckus
Benji Pierson, a.k.a. Ruckus, moved to Jackson
Hole, Wyo. from his hometown of Seattle with
little more than some art supplies and turntables.
Making ends meet by DJ-ing parties, weddings,
his own radio show and then working as a lifty
at the local mountain, he started on his nowpromising
art career. “Back then, snowboarding
was the number one priority. My art career was
virtually non-existent at the time,” says Pierson.
Nearly a decade later, Pierson’s art has been
featured on skis, snowboards, jackets, several
prestigious snowboard and ski magazines, Tony
Hawk: Shred, over five Storm Show films and
Travis Rice’s newest flick, Flight. Even with all
of the success, I got the feeling that he isn’t in it
for the money or the fame but for the pure love
of what he does. “I love art because I love being
accepted and being paid to be me … I mean,
getting paid to be yourself? That’s awesome,
are you kidding me? Plus, I get to drink beer,” he
says as he opens another can.
The story of Pierson and “Ruckus” is one of
perseverance. As a kid growing up in Seattle,
he was diagnosed with epilepsy. “I credit a lot to
epilepsy, because I couldn’t go out and do a lot
of the things the other kids could do, because I
would have a seizure and break my jaw or crack
my head open, which I did,” says Pierson. “So I
was forced to stay inside and my dad would sit
me down and we’d draw airplanes or whatever.”
Pierson soon found that, although a curse,
epilepsy might’ve molded him into the artist
and person he is today. “I appreciate every day
and I think epilepsy taught me that. So, maybe
I’d have been a normal kid, where it’s all about
money, cars and
status. I literally
take a deep
breath, soak it in
and appreciate
every single day.
A lot of the time,
with that disease
and with other
diseases, you’re
not able to do that.
Every day was a
struggle and I’m
thankful for that,”
says Pierson.
When Pierson
reached his midteens,
something
very peculiar
happened.
His epilepsy
disappeared
altogether. “All
of a sudden,
when I was
fifteen … bam.
It was gone. It
was like a miracle. Unbelievable,” says
Pierson. “I overcame my illness and it gave
me the confidence to overcome a lot of other
obstacles.”
Two days after relocating to Jackson Hole, he
met Darrell Miller, producer for Storm Show
Studios. The chance meeting
ended up being a pivotal
event in his career. Aside from
becoming the Art Director for
Storm Show, his relationship
with Miller landed him several
other gigs as well. First was
Avalon 7, a multi-level artist
collaboration founded by prosnowboarder
Rob “Kinger”
Kingwill. Shortly after that, he
began designing graphics for
Compatriot Snowboards, where
one of his boards was picked as
an Editor’s Choice in Snowboard
Magazine.
Perhaps one of his most valued
commissions came from
another chance meeting with
snowboard guru and Jackson
hero, Travis Rice. “He would
come to my art shows and he
was always like, ‘I’ve got my eye
on you, I’m checking you out.’
Finally he came up and said,
‘I think I’ve got a job for you,
I want you to do my jacket,’”
thus beginning his professional relationship with
Quiksilver. “We had some beers and we talked
about what colors he wanted. He showed me a
drawing that one of the Quiksilver artists had
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‘Indian’