Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ben Steele. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Ben, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

In order to assess what you are doing, you have to bring other voices into the conversation. Be willing to open yourself up to criticism. There is a season for all things, a time to hunker down in the studio, figuring out what you are trying to say, and a time to receive input. Only be doing this will you learn to see your work with fresh eyes. You will learn how much risk to take with future work, how much to change up, what to repeat. On occasion, things that seem too easy or old to you may seem essential and fresh to others.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I create oil paintings that are based on futuristic architecture, inventions, and the history of landscape painting. I am drawn to the utopian ideals put forth in futuristic architecture and sees this as a way humanity continually strives for a world that is just out of reach. The promised future is never here. Forms refer to futurism and invention in multiple times and places in our world’s history. They also at times appear to be in a state of ruin or construction. I am interested in how representing ideas of the future from the past creates a tension and feeling of displacement in time. Across multiple paintings a single form may appear more than once, seen at different scales, from diverse angles and in changing environments, as if in a shuffling of a giant deck of human history.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

In order to be an artist, one must be resilient. As a teacher, I always tell my students: get in the habit of applying for things you want, and don’t expect anything back. Understand that the fact that you are making the work and putting yourself out there is a success. If you can do this then you have already achieved success. Sometimes it can take applying for 20 things for 1 to come through. Sometimes you can apply for a single award or residency 10 times before you get it. Don’t get discouraged. Take the time to challenge yourself so you keep growing but then trust in your value and put yourself out there.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

I love creating and consuming art. Unfortunately, A lot of people don’t spend much time thinking about it. Mass media has become the go to form of entertainment. I wish that people understood that real creative culture is happening around them, in their communities and in their city. There is so much to discover if you are willing to engage. An active engagement with a culture that is happening physically around you is one of the most rewarding things you can imagine. The artists in Atlanta are pretty fantastic, but we need more patrons, more dealers, more people. who are willing to discover what is happening around them.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.steeleartist.com
• Instagram: @bendsteele