Red Lodge Clay Center – Short-Term Resident 2020
Ben received his MFA from Utah State University and his BFA from Frostburg State University. Ben served as a long-term resident at the Archie Bray Foundation from 2003-2005 and again in 2012. In 2009, he was a resident artist and visiting faculty member at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. His work has been exhibited nationwide and featured in a number of books and periodicals, including Ceramics Art & Perception, Ceramics Monthly, and Clay Times. Ben currently resides in Western Massachusetts where he is associate professor of ceramics and chair of the arts division at Bard College at Simon’s Rock.
My work is born from a need to be busy, to be challenged, to design, craft, and create with my own two hands. For five years I have worked with steel, lumber, and concrete — rigid, industrial materials that erase the presence of the human hand. This new body of work is a return to more natural forms. Simple and functional in design yet sensual and visually unrefined, these pots record the evidence of human touch: the marks of the maker, the preservation of a moment.