Benjamin David Steele

Region: South

Website: http://www.steeleartist.com

City / State: Smyrna, GA

The universe inhabited by my paintings is carefully balanced between optim-ism and ruin. All of time collapses, simultaneously combining within them a sense of humanity’s greatest moments of ingenuity with the reminder that we as humans are subject to fate and to a world that returns us to a state of entropy.

Through many works 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 they 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 my paintings draw inspiration. Projection, 3D printing, mold making, carvings, laser cut constructions, mirrors, and found objects all form expansive installations that serve as subject matter for an ever-expanding universe of forms and juxtapositions.