http://www.benjaminanderson.com

Hi Benjamin, thanks for talking to us today.

Growing up your father had a guiding hand in your foray into art. Do you remember the first time you were inspired by art?

My dad took me to a Rodin expedition and I was standing in front of ‘the burghers of calais’ and looked down at one of the feet he sculpted…I really liked the foot.

Not many artists have that guidance at such a young age, how was it having your dad their?

It was (and still is) as if art is part of everyday life…I was encouraged to be creative just as much as eating dinner or playing baseball. Making art now wasn’t a massive transition…it just was and is an extension of previous times.

How has your journey to Italy prepared you for your journey into Just Add Water?

Italy was my inspiration to embrace classical training in art. After I studied there I went on to San Francisco for a rigorous training regime in classical figurative painting and sculpture. As the old axiom goes, “If you know how to draw the figure well, you can draw anything”. That seemed to be true for me as I experimented with my own work out of the academic environment. Even though the ‘just add water’ series has some abstract tangents it still inherently embraced painting well, proportionally and realistically.

At the heart of it all what is the idea behind Just Add Water?

Add water to things you dislike or that disrupt and it dilutes them and renders them inept…add water to material objects and it makes them immaterial both visually and physically. Add water to people and it gives life and takes it away. Objects of importance become unrecognizable blobs of color and shapes. Ultimately, people interpret my paintings in many different ways: positively, negatively and neutrally.

A big congratulations goes out to for being selected as 1 of 10 artists to be featured on the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery’s, “Portrait of an Artist”. For this you submitted an intriguing portrait of “Ms. Leigh-Anne Tucker,” half submerged in water. What inspired you to do this rather unconventional portrait piece?

I had been doing quite a few conventional portraits and felt the need to paint someone in a different environment and try and dissolve the physicality of a ‘portrait’ to a certain degree. Some of the other portraits I’ve done in water are pretty much unrecognizable as the people being painted. I found that somewhat satisfying somehow.

What process do you go through in creating an original piece? Do you use any references?

For the ‘just add water’ works…I use anything I can get my hands on for reference…photos, miniatures of pools, cars, pianos, etc. So that I can have a working model in the studio of what I’m painting. I take photos whenever I’m near a pool or ocean or bathtub. I’ve recently made a couple of small ‘to scale’ pools with lap lanes and all so that I can drop anything in there and recreate a scene in the studio.

What is a piece of art that everyone should see?

The ‘uberorgan’ by Tim Hawkinson

Can you tell us a little about what kind of preparation it takes to have a successful gallery showing? What are the most critical things we need to have figured out?

Make things so that you don’t have to fix them ever again.

How important were the people you meet at school in shaping the artist that you are today?

Very. The friends that I made in school will be my sounding boards for life.

Tell us one thing we may not know about you?

I am an avid collector of post world war II airplane ticket stubs….hmmm…no that doesn’t sound that interesting…how about…I’m an honorary fighter pilot in the Brazilian Air Force. Better.

Any advice for those aspiring to be a true artist?

Anybody that commits to being creative no matter finances or life’s turns is an artist in my book. If the will to keep making through life’s obstacles is still there then you’re making it happen. As for selling works, all I know is that anything to work in my studio from 9 to 5 instead of in front of a desk for someone else is major. And Inspiration comes with perspiration…or something like that.

5 years from now, where do you see yourself and your work?

On top of the world!… Literally. I want to be the first artist ever to air paint on the summit of Everest…

Thanks again Ben. All the best with your work!

Posted: May 9th, 2008 under Uncategorized.
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