- Oklahoma State University, Art, Alumnusadd
- noneedit
- Benjamin grew up in northern Idaho and central Oklahoma. As a boy, his interests in art and storytelling were kindled by spending time watching his parents work in theatrical scene shops, painting large backdrops for plays and musicals. These interests led him to study art and drama in High School, and later in college at Oklahoma State University, where he discovered a passion for woodcuts and intaglio, and gradu... moreBenjamin grew up in northern Idaho and central Oklahoma. As a boy, his interests in art and storytelling were kindled by spending time watching his parents work in theatrical scene shops, painting large backdrops for plays and musicals. These interests led him to study art and drama in High School, and later in college at Oklahoma State University, where he discovered a passion for woodcuts and intaglio, and graduated with a B.F.A. in art. Benjamin also studied film production at North Carolina School of the Arts, but returned to his fine art roots, and is currently seeking an M.F.A. in printmaking at the University of Minnesota. He is a hopeless cinephile, prolific blogger, and Arts Editor of The Fiddleback literary journal. He is currently drawing a very large picture of a Rabbit.edit
Research Interests:
"Belgian artist James Ensor was one of extreme individualism. His work was both deeply personal, and socially radical, and he employed biting humor and satire to create overtly anti-establishmentarian imagery. While he explored a vast... more
"Belgian artist James Ensor was one of extreme individualism. His work was both deeply personal, and socially radical, and he employed biting humor and satire to create overtly anti-establishmentarian imagery. While he explored a vast number of motifs in his prolific career as a painter, printmaker and draftsman, his most radical works garnered the greatest attention. His known tendencies toward anarchist and socialist thought led him to be involved with the progressive radical group “Les XX,” a group of twenty painters, which emerged in 1883 as a leading avant-garde group in Belgium at the time (Pfeiffer 21). Ensor suffered a great deal of rejection from the group during its ten-year existence, and Ensor ultimately formed the perspective that even this radical group was not avant-garde enough for him (Pfeiffer 21). Elsewhere he also encountered harsh responses by critics and the art community. The artist is characterized by his role as a brash outsider, and his independence spawned a number of powerful depictions of social chaos and tyranny through a means of projecting the real injustices he saw in the world around him through an imaginative lens."
Research Interests:
"The contaminated land surrounding Chernobyl has been referred to as The Zone of Alienation, The Zone of Absolute Resettlement, and The Exclusion Zone. The 30-kilometer radius around the crumbling “sarcophagus” which houses the... more
"The contaminated land surrounding Chernobyl has been referred to as The Zone of Alienation, The Zone of Absolute Resettlement, and The Exclusion Zone. The 30-kilometer radius around the crumbling “sarcophagus” which houses the radioactive refuse of the plant’s 1986 meltdown has been deemed absolutely uninhabitable to man (Weisman, 215). However, as the abandoned structures of Chernobyl and adjacent villages crumble, trees, insects and animals thrive in the surrounding forest. Mild mutations in pine trees have caused irregular red coloring, along with sporadic growth in the length and luminosity of pine needles, which gives the unlikely refuge its adopted namesake: The Red Forest (Weisman, 215.) When I visit this place in my mind, my imagination fires with visual possibility. What happened at Chernobyl, and what continues to happen there in the aftermath of the forced evacuation, is a rich resource from which I draw many of my images."