San Francisco, CA fine artist Ben Boothby #artistaday

'Zee Lion 2'

'Zee Liner 1'

* All images used with permission. Please do not distribute without first contacting the artist.

About Ben

Ben Boothby is originally from Maine and received an MFA at the Academy of Art, San Francisco, in 2011. Before that he studied at Wesleyan University, Connecticut.

His paintings articulate the way we experience memory with the aim of appealing to a sense of nostalgia. Each piece is built up layers of spatial ambiguities and shifting degrees of focus, combined with scattered representational details. He uses his neurotic fixation on the past to investigate qualities that are more universal.

‘Our memories are rich with various emotions, smells, and tactile sensations. Memories can be a puzzle we cannot force into clarity,’ he says. In his re-interpretation of memories Boothby accentuate this puzzling sensation because it creates gaps that the viewer can fill with their own associations.

His work has been exhibited nationwide.

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'California'

'2012'

10 reactions displayed

"I quite like this. First I thought mr.Boothby had worked with all sort of pieces of lino fitted together. Intriguing, enjoyed it and spend quite some time looking at it, but....good grief!, I have to agree with Hugh, the text! how off putting. Please don't do that. I prefer to see and enjoy art at my level, how on earth am I going to see all of what's written in those paintings. Please mr.Boothby stick to what you're good at, painting. Don't write anymore and don't get someone else to do it. What you do is good, you don't need that."

"great but I love people in my pictures, sorry"

"very cool!"

"Every person first makes an emotional judgment about a piece of art. Assessment of the technical and artistic merits most often comes later. Each person is different in his or her ability to experience and analyze art. If you believe this about people, then you let go of frustration that may come from views that oppose your own. Opposing views can become conversations in which all viewers can find their viewpoints widened.I'd rather see people claim their views -- by posting their names along with their comments -- than sniping away at others from behind an anonymous label."

"Aye aye shipmate"

"Reminds me of Sterankø ..."

"Why is it that the first to respond to a piece are usually people that are incapable of making an attempt at an unbiased assessment before deciding if they personally find it aesthetically pleasing? In addition to which also seem to be ignorant to, or choose to ignore that everyone's sense of aesthetics are not the same."

"At first his paintings don't make an awful lot of sense, it's lucky that it's bright though because you would walk straight past it in a gallerey if they weren't and not see the full potentual. After studying it for a while though I found the hidden features and would not mind at all if they were to appear on my wall."

"I think these are very interesting, spacially. These subjects are difficult things to contemplate, let alone depict, so to make a meaningful connection is impressive."

"Paintings seem well thought out and would look well in the right setting. What a shame about the gobbledygook. I would never buy his paintings because he writes drivel about them."