SHEILA BENEDIS 

My life’s journey began in the left brain world.  I majored in math in college, and was introduced to nature and developed a love of art and poetry later in life.  Essentially self-taught, I started my art career making traditional functional baskets.  At home with my newborn son, after taking a basketry workshop, I was asked by a friend to take over teaching basketry to a group of Japanese ladies who were in the US with their families.  In order to teach the group, I had to learn how to make more baskets.  I discovered a professional Japanese basket maker to study with, and my creativity blossomed.  I wanted to go further and study sculpture.  Producing basket sculptures, constructed of traditional basketry materials and techniques, I exhibited my original forms throughout the US.

Tiring of this solitary, repetitive technique, after a few years I started the simple process of paper making.  Using the same branches I had used for basketry as armature, I combined them with handmade paper and found materials.  On a larger scale, they became installations and were exhibited in colleges and art centers in the tristate area.

After my son went off to college, I was able to go on artist residencies.  On my first residency, I realized installation pieces would be expensive to bring home. Another resident had a book on how to construct books, so I spent the rest of my time there digesting that book.  A new medium was added to my vocabulary: Artist books were born.  The simple accordion book was the best way to produce a sculptural form.  I experimented and made several books based on my love of nature.  I produced a tunnel book incorporating handmade paper.

Now I live next to a beautiful park with undulating walls.  I enjoy the trees moving in the wind, the rustling leaves, the clouds slowly floating by.  The park changes with the seasons.  Experiencing nature is a form of creative meditation for making art.  I slow down, revitalize my soul, refresh my mind, relax my body, feel alive.  A brisk walk arouses my creative juices.  I enter my personal territory, my apartment, a sacred space for creativity.  The discipline of solitary work completely absorbs me.  Nature’s organic shapes permeate with their texture and movement.  My imagery shows off lively, bright colors and conveys feelings of joy and excitement as well as feelings of injustice.

Besides a love of nature, on which my artwork is based, I also write poetry.  When I started, I expressed my excitement with nature.  Now, my  original poetry reflects, examines my life, my sense of the world and positive social change.  I make artist books activated by poetry.  An accordion book with poetry becomes a proclamation for liberty.

The first artist book of which I was very proud was a modified accordion book, based on the spring blossoming of the magnolia tree during COVID, incorporating my poem “Accomplishment.”

I went on to make altered books: taking a pre-existing book, adding collage, watercolor and my poetry.  The finished product would be a stunning sculpture. 

Recently, I’ve discovered a new technique.  I copy one of my printed poems onto a collage to produce a page which is a combination of imagery and imbedded text.  This page is copied to produce pages for the book.  The identical pages are attached to a concertina-crown binding and I cut organic shapes into the whole to produce an artist book.  My meditative labor is intervention with intention.  Some of the content may be hidden beneath the surface.  The poem submerged moves, floating in the layers, twisting and turning, not necessarily legible.

In “Tree Apparel,” I relate the tree’s apparel, its leaves, to the tree’s true feelings.  In winter the tree has lost its leaves, but not its life force.  It feels compelled to shed its leaves.  In nakedness, it proudly shows off its structure.  As spring descends, buds sprout in tiny delicate moss green leaflets.  With radiant flower blooming, it is still content with minimal covering.  Warmer weather brings a magical feeling.  Leaves grow gradually in deep forest green to produce full leaf cover.  Summer reigns as apparel takes over.  The tree has lost its life force as it descends into darkness.  It is unhappy, almost despondent.  Its mood revives in the fall after a brilliant show of color.  The tree happily sheds its apparel for the winter spectacle.  It has an underground network of roots and soil fungi for sharing water and nutrients. Trees communicate by storing memories, sending distress signals and responding to attacks.  They   are social beings and support each other, have a positive effect on our   emotions.

I created an accordion artist book based on ”Tree Apparel,” with the pages containing the tree in all four seasons.  The roots of the trees connect all four pages.  I collage the trees and roots,  and use calligraphy to copy the lines of each stanza of my poem onto the pages to produce a combination of imagery and text.

The armature of the tree in winter is the bones of my art.  I’m trying to capture the tree’s true essence in my artist book.  The tree has a powerful voice, a symbol of my identity as an artist.  My inner voice speaks.  It celebrates my life’s work.  My journey in the right brain world will never end.

I’ve made tunnel books, where an opening is created through which you look.  Now I have developed that idea with the concept of warping of space-time.  Gravity is a curving or warping of space.

Paper is my medium and I like to work three-dimensionally.  In addition to trees and organic shapes of nature, the buildings of  Antonio Gaudi, the Spanish architect, and Matisse’s cutouts inspire me.  The process usually comes first and I suddenly realize the idea when the piece is finished. The best part of my art making journey is enjoying the process.  I like to work in series to keep exploring an idea.  My goal is to get my current work exhibited more.

Artist books, activated by language, are my medium.  The visual image combined with verbal language gives meaning.   I communicate my feelings and ideas through art incorporating language, share my work, connect with and impact others.  When I am in tune with my innermost self, I feel more alive, since my energy is faithful to a commitment that nourishes me.  I feel grounded in the world. Knowing that I belong here and can offer something important.  Creativity heals me, the world.