We recently connected with Ben Steele and have shared our conversation below.
Ben, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
Growing up art always felt like home. At first it was what I could do on my own, as an only child I would spend hours looking at images and creating my own. In high school that love began to turn into a community. After school, more than any other activity it has felt like a way of life, a way of observing, a way of responding, a way of making sense and building bridges. I am endlessly motivated to do all of these things.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Through many of my paintings there is a relationship drawn between earthly concerns and those visible above. Searchlights, rainbows, fireworks, and comets serve as backdrops indicating a quest for knowledge, redemption, disaster, or celebration. Contemporary concerns involving space exploration, rising water levels, and natural disasters feel of the moment, yet possess a deep reach back through human imagination. My work takes inspiration from the vast history of landscape painting, futuristic architecture, designs and inventions, science fiction literature, and special effect cinematography. In the studio, I employ a variety of media from which to inspire paintings: Projection, 3D printing, Mold making, Carvings, Laser -Cut Constructions, Mirrors, and Found Objects all form expansive installations which serve as subject matter for an ever-expanding universe of forms and juxtapositions.
In an upcoming exhibit at Manifest Drawing Center in Cincinnati Ohio I will be unveiling some of these working models alongside the paintings for the first time in an exhibit.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Be endlessly curious. Follow your instincts. Constantly reflect on your path in an effort to understand it with hindsight. Only by paying attention to the world will you be able to respond with something new. In order to do this you must listen and trust deeply in yourself. Connections between seemingly unrelated events and decisions can ultimately be the thing that helps you define your purpose.
As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
“The Shape of Things to Come” by H.G. Wells gave me the title to my current series of paintings. More than any specifics in the book I am inspired by the idea that humanity is always striving, always pushing, and through the art and architecture of our past we can see this impulse through the form of futuristic architecture and inventions across time. I have taken his metaphorical use of the word “shape” and created a literal interpretation by which we feel this impulse through abstract form.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.steeleartist.com
- Instagram: @bendsteele
Image Credits
BEN STEELE
