AY Magazine / February 2012 / Art Scene: Contemporary Artist Finds Inspiration From The Past

Art Scene: Contemporary Artist Finds Inspiration From The Past

His face is aged and weathered. The wear and tear of a hardscrabble life is reflected in every line, but his emotive eyes and subtle smile convey a warmth and beauty that belie his hard exterior. He is a complex individual. So is the work of art that bears his likeness.
“Uncle Toot in Flower Bed” is a piece by Arkansas artist Sarah Mattingly-Benson. It’s mixed-media art using charcoal, watercolor, paper collage and … a flowerbed. That’s right. What was an abandoned flowerbed has since become a beautiful and poignant piece of art that captures the heart of a man nicknamed Uncle Toot.

“I think the reason why the work is so powerful is the combination of the materials,” said the 26-year-old artist who took a year to manipulate the old, wooden flowerbed into an homage to “Uncle Toot.” “It really creates that Southern presence that is powerful to the audience. You have all of those things working together. If you are just working on canvas — that’s nice and it’s beautiful — but it doesn’t have quite the same impact on the viewer that I want to portray.”

The impact Mattingly-Benson is hoping to achieve is a connection to rural life in the South. In our overly-scheduled, technology-driven life, she wants to help us connect to our pasts and to these people. The art is designed to transport you to a time, just a generation or two back, where farmhouses dotted the horizon and we had to travel old country roads to update neighbors on our status.

Arkansas’ Southern heritage can also be seen in another work of Mattingly-Benson’s that is currently on display at the Faulkner County History Museum. The installation is called “Kin.” This charcoal portrait on jagged, discarded wood is a haunting tableau of a working man’s life. To convey this moment in time, a hat and tie are carefully hung nearby, poised and ready for another day of work.

“I find things that strike me,” she said. “I figure which images would work best with them and what identity those objects have with the South. And I consider composition and all of those types of things.”

Real people. Real moments. Her work elevates everyday existence into works of art. Uncle Toot, for example, is actually her great uncle. “A lot of [the people portrayed in my works] are family members,” said Mattingly-Benson. “I started with a box of images I found at my grandma’s house. She just had these old photographs that were interesting in their own right, as far as composition and people in the pictures.”

Mattingly-Benson pointed out that while the pieces are very personal to her, she hopes they are ambiguous enough that they could represent anyone’s family or heritage.

Another piece called “Dresser” is exactly that, a dresser that she rescued from a dumpster. This piece of furniture is now a piece of art as well as a piece of our history.

“It’s interesting that things we consider so important and essential in our lives in just a generation or two are sort of forgotten,” said Mattingly-Benson, who has a self-proclaimed room full of “junk” or found pieces she uses in her art. “I continue to find objects and to create things from them. Every time I find a different piece, I get so excited. I’ve got a million ideas that I’d like to work on and work from.”

While Mattingly-Benson has a vision in mind when she begins a piece, the beauty of working with found objects is that sometimes the pieces evolve with each creative step. “It’s always surprising in working that way,” she said. “A lot of the times you’ll get some sanding on an object and find a different layer of paint.” These layers often add a totally different element to the pieces and can make them even more powerful.

Of course, she also adds her own rich layers to the pieces. “I found a lot of Bibles and music sheets and I’ll use those,” said the artist of her process. “On one piece I glued them so that you can see some of the text from the Bible pages coming through. You get a sense of both the painting and the object.”

From flowerbeds to dresser drawers, Mattingly-Benson has found and transformed countless castaway objects into “must have” art pieces. In 2008, one of her pieces was selected to be in the prestigious Delta Exhibition. But probably the most important thing she has found has been her calling.

“It’s not therapeutic, but finding these objects and creating art is something I love doing and will continue the rest of my life.”