Please share your name

Lauralee Benjamin

How would you describe what you do? Your practice, your craft, your cash machine?

I illustrate women and femmes, mostly nude, mostly erotic. My illustrations are almost exclusively inspired by porn.

Can you tell us where you are from?

Queens, NY

What does your morning routine look like?

I work a 9-5 so I wake up at approximately 8:55am every day in order to do so. Thankfully I work from home so its usually straight from bed to office (living room) each morning, then I get around to having coffee, breakfast and doing my skincare routine around 11. Stretch my legs a little, go over my internal to-do list, smoke some weed. If it were up to me I'd smoke as soon as I wake up but my wife recently implemented a "no weed til 1pm" rule in the house.

Where do you look for inspiration? A place, a person, a book, an action?

Mostly my wife, who was my fuckboy-of-a-girlfriend for the first 2 years of our relationship and provided lots of inspiration in the form of dramatic breakups. Also porn, obviously. All the women around me. Sometimes I hope I don't freak them out by illustrating some weird shit they shared with me in confidence.

What work are you most proud of?

I'm most proud of my Lighter of the Month Club because I've been customizing lighters longer than I've been professionally drawing so it all came full circle for me with the club. Proud of the small community of like minded people it has curated. In terms of an actual illustration, my current Instagram profile pic, called The Real You, is probably one of my widest reaching, most shared images. I actually made it my profile pic because I was tired of seeing it all over Instagram and Tumblr without credit lol

What has been the biggest challenge on your journey?

The pushback to my type of adult content has been huge. I've been kicked off apps, website hosts, payment processors, etc. They consider what I do porn. Just makes me want to double down and get weirder.

How do you define success? What are the goalposts you look out for?

In really simple terms, success for me is a happy family. I never had it and always wanted it. I would love to be recognized for my talent by my artist peers, but ultimately I just hope my future kid thinks art is cool, money is stupid - and that would feel like a major success.

What's the best advice you've gotten from someone?

"Don't complain out loud about something you're not actively trying to fix."

Who is someone that has helped you get to where you are now? How were they impactful?

The wife is too obvious right? I'll go with my internet friend Sophia. She followed me on Instagram about 8 years ago when I was casually posting sketches, and was immediately a huge supporter of my artwork. Reposting, buying prints, remembering my birthday, befriending my wife, joining lighter of the month club, going to bat for me in the comments, etc. Big artists probably have a lot of dedicated fans with them from the start but she might be my only one who's seen me evolve and notices and praises the evolution and progress.

What are you currently listening to? What is your go to song?

Currently on repeat - Blick Blick by Coi Leray & Nicki Minaj. My go tos are anything Mariah, specifically the Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel album, extra credit for the Jump Smokers remix version.

What's the last thing you bought with cash?

cheetos + hi chew mango flavor

See more of Lauralee’s work HERE And for sure check out the Lighter Of The Month Club!