Recent Sculpture

Paintings

Sculpture

Pots

Artist Statement:

I make work out of a worry for the creatures that nourish our bodies, text books, and stories passed down. These animals, who's perish would silently lessen human experience, have been laid by the wayside. There seem to be few searches that attempt to reverse the high friction path that humanity has been widdling on its back porch, but I see a need for a remedy. I celebrate the existence of these animals with a tender, and sometimes uncannily strange concern. I bring focus to a fish-lovers reality.

I see my constructions as anthropomorphic versions of current and antiquated trends; naked with human emotion, and bearing substance and trace of human culture and industry. I intend to use these very human traces to illustrate the stresses that have trickled down from humanity’s attempt to move forward.

Clay has a rich and humble tradition, and through its practice, it has offered a subtle metaphor in my "thrown and altered” work. With the care in which I craft these creatures, I hope to give them strength.

My process begins with a thrown, enclosed form, approximately the size and shape of the intended creature. From that air bubble of clay I paddle, pinch, cut and scrape it until it bares a pleasing gesture. With the addition of limbs, fins, jaws, eyeballs, and also the uncanny, physical residue of human culture, this creature becomes a new character in the stories of a sort of modern folklore.

benblamgmail [dot] com