2008 Woodie Awards
Artist blends technology and art
Meg Power
Issue date: 2/23/07 Section: News
As part of its ongoing lecture series, the Art Gallery sponsored Painter Jennifer Benn in an ArtBreak slide lecture.
Mrs. Benn showed work from her high school days up to her most recent work. For her bachelor's thesis, Benn drew upon her semester in Florence, Italy, to demonstrate the epic size and magnitude of the classical architecture.
"I wanted people to feel what I felt," she said, looking at the architecture. Benn remembered Florence as "a wild adventure for me, and that's what my work was remembering."
One piece of advice Benn reiterated was undergraduate travel. The program abroad in Florence "totally changed my life."
During her semester, Benn frequently studied the work of German impressionists. "I think German impressionists worked well with the crumbling architecture.
Another major influence for Benn is Islamic art and geometry.
"Islamic art history forbade art, so geometric cubes were covered by creative vines," Benn explained. "I really like the idea of chaos and order together."
Benn's current work centers on how technology and computers affect the world.
"I try to reflect what I see going on in the world," Benn said. "The big change in the world from my perspective is the influx of computers."
Benn set out to create the computer as an icon similar to Andy Warhol's Elvis or Marilyn Monroe.
"My work is a unifying of art and machine, science and art," said Benn.
Having taken a class at UNH, worked for a computer magazine as a summer job, even marrying a computer engineer, Benn is able to blend "computer power and human reason" in her work. She has recreated some of the "redundancy of computers - something so complicated to do something so simple."
A noticeable mark of Benn's work is the scale of the paintings.
"I like the viewer to be overwhelmed by the painting," said Benn. "I want viewers to stand in front of it and be engulfed."
Mrs. Benn showed work from her high school days up to her most recent work. For her bachelor's thesis, Benn drew upon her semester in Florence, Italy, to demonstrate the epic size and magnitude of the classical architecture.
"I wanted people to feel what I felt," she said, looking at the architecture. Benn remembered Florence as "a wild adventure for me, and that's what my work was remembering."
One piece of advice Benn reiterated was undergraduate travel. The program abroad in Florence "totally changed my life."
During her semester, Benn frequently studied the work of German impressionists. "I think German impressionists worked well with the crumbling architecture.
Another major influence for Benn is Islamic art and geometry.
"Islamic art history forbade art, so geometric cubes were covered by creative vines," Benn explained. "I really like the idea of chaos and order together."
Benn's current work centers on how technology and computers affect the world.
"I try to reflect what I see going on in the world," Benn said. "The big change in the world from my perspective is the influx of computers."
Benn set out to create the computer as an icon similar to Andy Warhol's Elvis or Marilyn Monroe.
"My work is a unifying of art and machine, science and art," said Benn.
Having taken a class at UNH, worked for a computer magazine as a summer job, even marrying a computer engineer, Benn is able to blend "computer power and human reason" in her work. She has recreated some of the "redundancy of computers - something so complicated to do something so simple."
A noticeable mark of Benn's work is the scale of the paintings.
"I like the viewer to be overwhelmed by the painting," said Benn. "I want viewers to stand in front of it and be engulfed."
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Need more
posted 2/24/07 @ 12:04 AM EST
An interview with an artist without a picture of her paintings or even herself is like painting in white.
C'mon!
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