Artist's Statement
Between the natural world and the abstract is where my work finds itself. Like hallucinations, my paintings depict environments and people in flux; they live, breath, move, and exist in and out of time and space.
Recently, my work has been focused on shadows, specifically those that humans cast. This started after two people close to me passed away in succession, leaving behind an absence that I found myself unconsciously tracing. I returned to places that reminded me of them—neighborhoods where they lived or where we spent time together—seeking something familiar. I began by documenting and painting a series of houses before I felt a pull to explore the alleyways that cut through the heart of these blocks. These alleyways are places where I spent time in my youth, and yet, after revisiting them, seemed unchanged in many ways. In these alleys I saw landscapes that were both desolate and full—full of human presence, shaped by the past and present. The more I explored and spent time in these spaces, the more they came to life. I began seeing that human presence manifests in the form of shadow figures gliding across the pavement and overgrowth, a connection between the physical world and the metaphysical. Shadows have long been a symbol of presence and absence, of memory and the passage of time. They are ephemeral, shifting with light and disappearing into darkness, yet they also bear the imprint of what once was. In my work, these shadow figures act as echoes, reminders that people leave traces in the places they inhabit. By rendering them in color, I transform what is typically fleeting into something permanent and alive, emphasizing the energy and spirit that persist beyond physical existence.
This body of work, titled Neighborhood Trip, is a collection of these paintings of houses, alleyways and shadows. Taking some inspiration from Post-Impressionism, German Expressionism, and psychedelic art of the 1960s, I build up of layers of oil paint to construct landscapes with atmospheric depth, while the figures, inspired by shadows and the way they shift under colored light, exist as spectral impressions. Their vibrancy represents a life force within these otherwise empty, seemingly abandoned spaces. They are composites not only of those I’ve lost, but all those who’ve lived, traveled, and shaped these areas. Their presence lives on whether we notice or not.
Artist's Bio
Benjamin Childress is a Utah-based artist, living and working in Salt Lake City. Specializing in oil paintings, he creates work that explores themes of identity, human connection, anxiety, memory, place, and the seen and unseen forces that shape us. Employing a mix of layering, blending, and bold brushwork, with an emphasis on form and color, his paintings are rooted in personal experience and influenced by various eras of expressionism and psychedelic art. His work is in private collections nationally and has been shown in the Pacific Northwest and Utah.
