2005 Award Winners

BENJAMIN FRISCH
Bruton High School

I love comic books. I am not embarrassed to say this. Comic books represent a unique and still largely undeveloped media. That being said, comics, although often neglected, are a perfectly legitimate modern day art form. I have always enjoyed comics as entertainment, but it was not until fairly recently that I truly realized the potential that comics have as an art form. I see the potential of the comic media as the inspiration for my artwork.

The origins of my art are in comics as entertainment. I started out copying cartoon characters out of books in static poses when I was in the 5th grade. I was never satisfied and often frustrated. I tried to find new ways of presenting my art. It wasn't until I discovered the graphic novel series The Sandman by Neil Gaiman that I realized that comics could be presented in a more serious fashion. The Sandman succeeds in conveying a complex, novel-like narrative, enhanced by dream-like imagery. I still believe The Sandman is the finest graphic novel ever written as far as storytelling is concerned. My art at that point took a darker turn, exploring more realistic figures and subjects. Style became an obsession of mine. I was much too concerned with fabricating a style of my own. It wasn't until much later that I gave up completely and let my style develop on its own.

Another major artistic influence on my art is the Singaporean artist, FSc (Initials for Foo Swee chin). Drawing from Surrealism, her work is truly unique, defying established styles. My art took a bizarre turn; I began to worry less about preconceived notions of what art should look like, and originality became the most important thing I sought to develop. My art has progressed since; my experiences as a caricature artist at Busch Gardens have helped me greatly in constructing forms and sketching. In the last two years, I have discovered the value of fine art, and have been experimenting with different mediums and techniques, such as watercolor and life drawing.

My favorite art project is something we have done very recently in my Advanced Art class in association with my Literary Arts class, Silk Painting. Silk Painting is intriguing to me because of the way the dyes are absorbed into the fabric, leaving bold white outlines where resist is applied. Silk Painting through history has been used as a sort of alternative media in Asia, employing techniques associated with other media to silk, so there is no set style associated with Silk Painting. This allowed me the freedom to pursue a more "cartoony" subject, the results of which I am very proud. I planned my design to incorporate a complex, stylized figure on the scarf-sized piece of silk we used. The vertical format presented an interesting challenge in my design. How could I present a figure with good composition in a 52" x 8" piece? I decided to use a bright red-orange background to pop out the blue skin tone (1 love using alternative skin tones) and the green in the dress. I am extremely satisfied with how it turned out, and plan to work in Silk media more in the future. I have titled my piece, Dominique Francon, named after a character in The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand. The character of Dominique Francon is characterized by her icy appearance and cold personality; I thought this was fitting for a shrewd looking subject composed of entirely cool colors.

My goal for the near future is to develop greater consistency in my drawings to better illustrate a continuous narrative. This one area is where I feel as though I have the most work to do, as of now, my style is great for purposes of illustration, but in order to create comics, one needs to be able to create a series of consistent, sharp images. I feel that because I did so much experimenting trying to find a style, that I never developed a "base" to draw from, this is something I am working on now, and am just starting to feel that I can work consistently.

I would describe my cartoon art as somewhat surrealistic, often elongating limbs and stretching proportions. My style doesn't fit into any specific genre. Although I do think it has an Asian feel to it, I would never qualify it as Manga (Japanese comic book) style art. I have recently delved into the works of Art Spiegleman. Maus, his Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novel, deals with the Holocaust, representing Jews as Mice, and the Nazis as Cats. Maus represents something that I want to do in the future: I want to create comics that can be appreciated as more than entertainment, as true art.

Art will play a significant role in my future. I plan on working as a full time artist, drawing and writing to create work that goes beyond simple entertainment, making people think about what they are reading. I am deeply interested in philosophy, and I would love to incorporate that into my work. I am not the type of artist who wishes to make a point, or enforce a message. Although thematic works have their place in literature, I believe the best fictional works are those that are "believed into existence" as my Literary Arts ill teacher, Doctor James Murphy would say. Works that are "believed into existence" are not created for a purpose; they come to be because the artist lets them grow out of his mind. In a way, they create themselves.