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| Benjamin Phillip Frisch | | | See more art by Benjamin Phillip Frisch | | It sounds like you always had an interest in art, when did you know you wanted to really pursue it as a career? | | | I believe it was the same moment that I realized that art was an actual career. When I was in grade seven, we had a guest speaker who worked in the animation industry. I don’t think that I had previously considered the fact that my love of drawing was also a possible career choice. At that time I was still very interested in cartooning, so until around my final year in high school, animator was my number one career choice. Through those final years and into college my career of choice did change quite a few times (3d animation, texture artist, illustrator, concept artist… etc.) but never, since that day in grade 7, did I consider a career that did not involve art. | | | | You started with portraits as a child, when did you expand to painting abstracts as well as doing portraits and figures? | | | I just loved to draw, life drawing was also my favorite class all through college. Although the curriculum was designed more for animation and most of the faculty came from that field, one instructor in particular, with a fine art background, really inspired me to take more of a fine art approach with my drawing. Upon completing my studies at Seneca College I seemed to get right into fine art portraiture starting with a large portrait of that instructor.
After a year and a half from graduation my interest in fine art became very strong and it was slightly frustrating looking back, realizing fine art was a path that I should have chosen long ago. With that thought in mind I applied for an undergraduate degree program in Visual Arts. However, my application process progressed only as far as the portfolio evaluation which, oddly enough, was one of the single most important moments of my artistic career. Showing only drawings and photography at the evaluation, it was the opinion of the evaluator that realists such as I tend to become frustrated with their program which placed strong emphasis on abstract, conceptual art. Although I instantly lost interest in studying at that university I do deal well with criticism and I took their comments to heart. In an effort to expand my skills and diversify my portfolio, about two weeks after the evaluation, I began experimenting in abstract painting for the first time in my life. To this day, I continue to balance both, using free abstract painting methods as a release from the strain and focus of my large scale charcoal portraits. | | | | How much time goes into creating a piece like "The Melting" or "Too Many Factors"? | | | To be quite honest, too much time went into both "The Melting" and "Too Many Factors". As I mentioned before, painting to me is a release from other slow, meticulous drawing projects. Although my meticulous nature does come out in the borders and sharp taped lines of my paintings, I do remain very loose and free in terms of my use of brush, pallet knife, and sponge. However, when the measuring and taping of those lines takes up too much time, the purpose of enjoying the painting process can become lost. | | | | When and why did you start selling your work online? | | | Since studying digital media and graphic design in college I’ve had a good understanding of the internet and web design. I started my own website during my studies but always used it as more of a portfolio website. When I started creating more commercial artworks the transition into selling that work online was very natural. Although I still try to exhibit my work as much as possible, the internet simply remains a much easier way to exhibit and sell that work on a global scale. | | | | Is anyone else in your family an artist and how did they influence you and your work growing up? | | | As a lot of my previous answers show, I have a strong memory of influential factors in my art and I could literally go on for pages about the impact that each member of my family had on my art. Although there are no living, professional artists on either side of my family I come from a long line of art lovers and hobbyists who simply provided a huge amount of support which continues to this day. In fact, I am going on for pages about the influences which led me to become an artist in my blog at benfrisch.com. It is an attempt to examine literally every influence in me becoming a professional artist, including my bloodline, my mother keeping all of my childhood art and my grandfather teaching me how to draw my first face, just to name a few. | | | | What is your goal when creating a new abstract piece and what do you hope to communicate with someone who is viewing your work? | | | On a visual level, my main goal when creating a new piece is to work quickly and freely to allow textures to happen without a great deal of thought. Rarely do I ever wash something off that did something I did not intend because I never have any real intention in the first place. Generally a painting will take three to four passes where my goal is then to strengthen the visual stimulation in terms of color and texture and to create balance within the piece.
Because much of my work is influenced by my connection to nature and a strong social conscience, I have taken the communication of my abstract art to a much more realistic level. By creating different series of works whose titles can be strung together in a poem I am able to create another point of interest for my work which strengthens the communication and hopefully strengthens the viewers own connection to our natural environment. | | |
| | Visit the Artist Page of Benjamin Phillip Frisch |
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