Art has always been more than just a skill or career to me, but feels like a link to the parts of human experience that lay beneath our surface.
I developed my artistic practice by approaching art as a healing, exploratory pursuit, which lead me to be open and free in my creative process. Often experimenting with different mediums, treating my art like play has allowed me to reach deeper emotions and unexpected imagery that reside in the subconscious mind.
I feel a strong link between my unplanned, organic approach to creating art and the unplanned, organic state of nature. Nature is the original artist, creating itself from itself just as artists create their art from themselves. My art is both inspired by nature in subject and process, as I use methods like automatic drawing that parallel the way nature is unplanned but beautiful and perfect in its own methods.
Art provides me with an understanding of myself and my world as well as a source of healing. Using an abstract surrealist style, I capture the beauty and healing I receive from nature and art to return that same healing and beauty back to the world.
Born in Seattle, Washington surrounded by the Pacific Northwest’s nature, Naomi Benson has never felt at a loss for the inspiration that drives her abstract surrealist artwork. As a child, Naomi struggled with the pronunciation of her own name and quickly earned the nickname “Gnome” from her family. Since then, art has been both a form of joyful exploration and powerful expression for Benson. Whether through the embrace of vulnerability or unpredictability, art offers Benson a healing energy that she shares with others through her artwork.
Benson developed her experimental approach to art through years of self-teaching and exploration. Never beholden to one medium or method, Benson allows her subconscious to guide her creation, often using automatic drawing to start a work and rarely approaching the canvas with a plan. Her creative process explores the organic connection humans have with art as a means of expression and understanding that predates any paintbrush or theory.
Nature and the deep way humans are entwined with the natural world is a recurring theme in Benson’s artwork. The powerful relationship between humans and nature underscores the message of appreciation and protection for the environment Benson layers within her artwork. Through her free approach to creating art, the beauty of play, exploration, and the healing power of nature and creativity are all joined together in Benson’s effortlessly natural and psychedelic style.
Naomi Benson lives and creates from her Pacific Northwest paradise in Seattle, Washington.
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