Personal Artist Statement

I was born on the island of Maui, a place of great beauty and sensuous feminine energy. It is a hybrid place, a vast mix of cultures, climates and environments and has been an integral part of who I am as a person and as an artist.

My work started as an obsession when I was a young boy and it hasn't stopped. I have always looked at the world differently from most of those around me. It is from this perspective that I create my work.

My childhood was spent creating things from "treasures" found in abandoned buildings or the mysterious forest that sat silently near my home. I suppose my love of found objects may have been born from this.

In high school, I won an art scholarship, which I used to study art. After a year, a near-fatal accident changed my life so much, that I had to leave school. Though it was a tragic time in my life, it made me realize that the only thing that held any relevance or meaning to me was art.

Through my career, I've explored a wide variety of mediums and techniques. Each has honed my skills as an artist and has felt like a stepping-stone onto the next. All of these different skills have become a part of my toolbox, but I've learned that technique is not the art. It is merely the means to create the art. When an idea comes, I can reach into this toolbox to accomplish my vision.

I create art because it’s something my skillsets and talents are suited for. It’s also a never ending compulsion. Through art I am able to explore the subtle truths of life and express its complexity, beauty and awe with others.

Biography

Born 1962 in Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii. Currently lives and works in Kula, Hawaii. Ben represented Maui in the 2001 Biennial Exhibition of Hawaii Artists at the Contemporary Museum Honolulu and was also featured in a Hawaii Public Television show called "Spectrum".

Ben's works are included in many prominent collections including those of the Hawaii State Museum, the Stanford Children's Hospital, the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, the Maui Arts and Cultural Center, the Leslie Granat Foundation, and the OPI Corporation.