Artist Spotlight: Jess Benjamin
Location: Omaha, NE
Education: Cozad High School; BA in Studio Art, Hastings College;
MFA in Ceramics, Bowling Green State University
Employment: Studio Artist
Website: www.jessbenjamin.com
Jess Benjamin creates work that is both monumental and beautiful. She is easily one of Nebraska’s premier artists. If you aren’t already an admirer of her work you will be! Enjoy the Spotlight and visit her studio on Saturday. (Post Above)
Biography: Jess Benjamin was born in Cozad, Nebraska in 1979. She received her B.A. in Studio Art from Hastings College in 2001. She received her M.F.A. in Ceramics in 2008 from Bowling Green State University, where she studied under John Balistreri. Benjamin was a studio assistant for artist Jun Kaneko from 2002-2005. She has shown at the Museum of Nebraska Art, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, and The Fred Simon Gallery. Her works have been published in Lark Publications “500 Ceramic Sculptures,” Ceramics Monthly, NY Arts Magazine, Nebraska Life, and HER Magazine. Benjamin has appeared on NETV’s program “Statewide” and HGTV’s “That’s Clever.”
How did you realize you wanted to be an artist?
I attended a liberal arts college that required me to take an art class. Immediately, I was attracted to clay and began prioritizing time in the ceramics studio creating work over other studies. After graduation, I spent a year working on my family’s farm and ranching operation. During this time, I realized I needed to be working with clay to express my ideas more than I needed to be working on the ranch.
How would you describe your style or approach to work?
As an artist, I am a problem solver. I am interested in finding solutions to the problems of the world I live in. My artwork focuses on the ongoing and worsening drought in the Great Plains of Nebraska. The objects that I create are inspired by my research on Kingsley Dam at Lake McConaughy in Ogallala, Nebraska, a short drive from where I was born. Drought is not only a regional problem: it is a global one. I attend to one dimension of this global problem in my work on Lake McConaughy.
What is the best advice you’ve ever received?
My father once advised me on the physics of riding a 4-wheeler in the pasture when he said, “You can always go down a hill, it is trying to get back up that is the hard part, so you had better have a plan.” I use this advice in almost all aspects of creating sculpture. I have to think long-term before committing to creating a piece of art. When I work with clay, I have to think about how the material is going to shrink as it dries; how I will move it; how I will fire it; how I will glaze it; at what temperature will I fire it; how will I be able to crate it to move it safely. Finally, I have to think about how it will be displayed and lit in galleries, homes and public spaces.
What is your best way to break out of a creative rut?
I go to a library to browse through books, periodicals, magazines, and maps that are relevant to an idea that I have been thinking about. I spend most of my time in the science stacks looking for books on agriculture, grasslands, water, and drought.
What would you like the viewer to take away from your work?
In my artwork there are many theoretical similarities between the underlying structures of jackstones, water and ethanol molecules, and seed starting planters All relate to a basic geometrical form: the tetrahedron, a type of pyramid that is similar to the shape of a jack in a child’s game of jacks. Each of my sculptures develops this concept. I hope that people will look at the objects that I create and notice the fragile balance there is between humans and nature. Ceramic sculpture allows the audience not only to view the object, but also to touch it, offering a more integrated and tactile experience.
