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Hello. I am Ben Smith. I am a 3D sculpture artist who is interested in the natural world and what it looks like when what we create is abandoned and left untouched by us allowing nature to reclaim it in what I call its controlled chaos, as while it may look wild and random if you look closely you can see patterns emerge in how they grow.
I am also very interested in themes like fantasy, more specifically medieval fantasy as I like to use my work to entertain rather than preach, to make work that can be enjoyed by all people as it is simply just pleasant either visually or emotionally but can be contemplated more deeply by those who choose to enjoy them that way.
One of the ways I like to do these things is with the skills and techniques I have learned from hobby based arts and crafts as I think it makes for an interesting non traditional approach to art and allows us to question what it is that makes art, art as well as I believe it makes it feel more comforting and less high brow to ease the average persons viewing and experience.
The work you see before you is a result of these ideals, I was very interested to step out of my comfort zone and rather than my normal style which is all about some form of tactility and physical touch to push audiences to interact with the work this time I wanted to try and create art that could create a strong feeling without the necessity of touch which as with my work this time would foremost be a feeling of entertainment but I was very interested in trying another emotion that came to be relaxation which then led to my findings of the concepts of Zen which a lot of this work was partly inspired by although obviously mixed with my own style.
There is two types of work on show, three paintings, two fountains. The paintings are an experiment in combining 2D and 3D art whilst keeping them as two separate things as well as combining fantasy styles with relaxing ideals whereas the fountains are an attempt at working more advanced an implementing a technology I have never tried before into my work. And then through the use of this technology introduce a relaxing soundscape into the work.
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