ArtIsUnity Interviews – Sammy Bennett
I consider myself an artist who uses printing techniques through the lens of a painter. I’m not a traditionalist in the sense that a print is only a print and a painting is only a painting.
Can you explain what you like about printmaking and what you like about painting? Why do you like to combine both techniques?
Painting is a one to one ratio where you can see the brushstrokes my individual hand made. I usually paint things that have a lot of meaning to me.
What I like about printing is that I can reuse that image or pattern again and again, for years if you wanted to. It can hop across multiple materials. Each time you print it has a different context, so the meaning of that image is always growing as you use it in more diverse locations. Combining the two creates a new world with its own set of rules.
You made a series of paintings on window blinds, that were exploring people’s hidden lives? You were using a lot of Dr. Seuss imagery. Can you explain this series of work?
This was my thesis work l made while finishing up my MFA at Michigan State University. It was inspired by the textual and pictorial absurdity of Green Eggs and Ham. I liked the repetition of my own name in the story and thought multiple “Sams” represented different phases of my life. I modified the illustrations by cutting the figures out of the pages of the book and collaging zoomed in photos of genitals taken from pornographic magazines. I painted large scale on the blinds from those collages. It was about getting outside your comfort zone and trying new things.
You have also recently branched out into soft sculpture, tattoos, and clothing making. Do you consider that a part of your practice?
Yes, it’s all under the umbrella of what I do. It’s all literally just practice for me. I really just enjoy practicing a lot of different things with no hopes of ever perfecting them but maybe getting close to it. Also a lot of images I use will start as a painting and then later be turned into a tattoo or be thrown onto a hoodie. I want to see how an image works on different materials.
When you are making a lot of things it’s all about compartmentalization and keeping organized.
Can you explain the imagery in your work? You seem to have a specific language, or artistic lexicon, that you use that forms a loose narrative in your work. Do you see it that way?
Yes, I see it all as a narrative. I’m just one small footnote in a much larger story that is Humanity. The imagery is a jumble from personal family photos to found images from online or magazines. Children’s books or my old drawings, plants, bricks and woodgrains. These are all the patterns around me that I am constantly looking at.
From what you’ve told me you have a few subjects you often gravitate towards, which is sexual/ pornographic imagery and then on the flip-side it seems like recently you’ve been making a lot of art about childhood and your Midwestern upbringing. Can you talk about your sources and how you choose your imagery?
I take a lot of screenshots of shows I’m watching or something that turned me on. It’s really intuitive and I don’t think much when I’m grabbing an image. Its only after the fact I like to sit with it and decipher why I chose it.
Is your sexual content about sex itself or an exploration into sexuality itself?
It’s a mixture of the two. I was reading a lot of Michael Foucault at the time I started making working about sex and trying to think of sex as a scientific study. I wanted to connect pornography to something objective, universal and academic. I was also experimenting in my personal life with new and different partners and trying to break out of the male/female binary.
Have you ever or do you think you would ever work in total abstraction? Do you feel like you need to have some imagery?
I used to make purely abstract paintings a long time ago when I was learning to paint. It taught me how to move it around, make large gestures and not be so fussy. They were always side experiments and something I could then bring back into the figurate work I was making at that time. I don’t think I would work in pure abstraction, I’m just not that brave.
What inspires you? Do you feel like you are inspired by NYC, specifically Brooklyn? Do you think being from Michigan and having that background and then living in NYC has influenced how you think both in terms of content and imagery?
Yes, both the city and nature inspire me. Whether walking along the beach or down the street my eyes are always roaming and looking at different materials. Finding patterns that exist in both is also a fun game I like to play. My love of the outdoors and nature is always there
What was your experience like in school?
School was challenging.
I feel like craft is very important to you. Both in practice and an appreciation for it. Can you explain that?
My mom taught me an appreciation for craft. She was always sewing our costumes or making nativity scenes out of wood blocks. The time spent making the thing shows your love for the person. I don’t think craft needs to be elevated into a high art form, the pillow my grandma embroidered is just as important as a painting hanging in a gallery. They are both artifacts who hold the same value.
When I first met you, you were doing some curating, then took a break. Recently you have had the opportunity to transform your friend’s spare room into the Bob’s Gallery. Has it been fun to organize shows again? Do you like taking up the curator role? How do you see that fitting into your practice or overall vision of yourself as an artist?
Yeah it has been fun to organize shows again and it’s good to be on the other side of the gallery system, keeps you on point. I do really enjoy taking up the curator role and being behind the scenes. It’s not something I ever set out to do, it has always come out of a place of frustration and necessity. In this new installment of curating I’ve realized how import it is to build a community of artist around you. Quite simply my friends deserve to have their work seen and I want to help facilitate that and create dialogue around their work.
In terms of my overall vision, I would like my own artwork to be my main focus one day but I have this great opportunity right now that I’m going to take full advantage of. I’m not sure what will come out of it.
Can you talk about your education? How has that influenced the art you make? Do you have any opinions on the value of a BFA/MFA? Did you enjoy teaching art?
My education consisted of a traditional oil on canvas/Western view of art in undergrad and then in grad school I tried to explode all my teachings. I moved away from oil painting on canvas and more into installation and screen-printing. I enjoyed my seven years of art school. I only took a year and a half off between undergrad and grad school so my mindset was not really rooted in reality. So when I finally got out I fell flat on my face over and over again.
I owe a lot to all the great teachers I had that still care about their students. I think there are too many tenured profs out there that just don’t have it in them anymore.
Yeah, get a BFA and an MFA if you want; to each their own but I don’t think you need either to be an artist. You also don’t need to go into severe debt to go to art school.
Yes, I really enjoy teaching art to people who genuinely want to learn. I carry all those lessons and assignments with me and I enjoy giving them back to students.
Many thanks to Sammy Bennett; view Sammy’s work here, and in our ArtIsUnity Gallery.