Benjamin Hunt

Artist statement

 

         I believe the act of being creative is the ability to render new and always-improving ideas to a world being formed by individuals. My work as an artist explodes into a plethora of themes that when united can be explained in one word, that word is me. The pros of being a very obsessive person helps me concentrate on the themes that spill from a variety of different mediums that I am exposed to. An example would be looking at my average hometown in a way that most people would ignore, which inspired one reoccurring idea to me. This idea spread throughout most of my artwork like an infectious disease—transforming all of my work.  Every weekend I was going out and taking pictures of this predictable town and using these images to convey my views as a growing artist.

         Without a pen, I would not be satisfied with most of pieces; I say this because a pen can create anything. A pen is my gateway drug to the art world. It introduced combinations such as watercolors and marker renderings. Printmaking has also become another way to show how obsession can come in handy.  A recent subject of my work has been shopping carts. Shopping carts are not something most people would look at and think about, but I saw this as an opportunity to capture the life of a common object. I want to show people objects in their daily life that no one really appreciates. I look at how they are designed and what happens to the shopping cart over the day. This is just one of the examples of how this reoccurring theme shadows my artwork.

            I believe that all of the work I have completed is never really what I had in mind in the beginning. My new ideas are always influencing all of the creations that I am working on. The finished product is almost never what I had imagined it to be. This is a very positive trait because not thinking about what I am creating helps me relate to my other creations. Working instinctively, I can create art that impacts others. If I can have someone stop and take a moment to view my latest piece, then I get a feeling of fulfillment. 

             My goal for my artwork that I create is for people to slow down and really think about how much time was spent on anything that has been produced. I want them to realize how many hours were spent to get the final product—not just the creation of my artwork, but in the creation of the product itself. Finally, I want them to see the true beauty of a place or object that they take completely for granted, whether it is a car, a cell phone or even a shopping cart.

 

 

2012