Mary Anne Benson

I am an artist because I live in a world saturated with images and I want to create my own and contribute my own view to that world. I am far less concerned than I should be about finished products—to me they are just residue of the real art, which lies in the process. My process involves mostly experimentation and play. Accidents and mistakes often take me in exciting new directions. In video, this takes the form of the evolution of my ideas, which always morph into something completely different along the way. In photography, my process is finding new ways to see something—the beauty in trash, the grotesque side of what is considered beautiful, the humor and surreal nature of mundane things. I like to work in places I walk by everyday, breaking out of the beeline of routine to discover something new to connect with. I love when people see me making images, because they sometimes stop and look where I was looking. To me it doesn’t matter if they see the same thing I saw, it’s probably best if they see something else or nothing at all. What matters is that they took a brief moment to break out and look for themselves. Finished works of art invite someone to see your point of view, your story, your take on the world. I revel in encountering the art of others, and am so happy that with digital technologies many more people can explore this sort of looking and self- expression. The world needs more stories and more points of view.