artist’s statement
All my prints are original screen prints. They are hand pulled, using stencils created from hand cut film, paper, or painted directly on the screen with drawing fluid and screen filler. Some of my work is printed on hand made paper and then collaged onto stretched canvas. My recent work has taken a turn away from “edition prints” using more realistic subject matter, toward “abstractions.” Abstract Expressionism has always fascinated me and many of my art professors in the late 50’s remain an influence on my work as do the years I spent living abroad, especially in Asia and the Middle East.
biography
Vidabeth Bensen was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. “I was a quiet, shy child, drawing all the time. My father was a sports writer and he brought home newsprint and those big dark pencils used for editing. My mother said I drew from the time I was about two years-old.”
While Vidabeth Bensen was studying art at Brooklyn College in the 1950’s, some actor friends asked her to make posters for their upcoming plays.
Creating multiples of posters by hand using pens, brushes, paint and India ink was very tedious, so Vidabeth did a bit of research on silk screen printing. “My friend and I decided that that was the cheapest and easiest method of printmaking that we could teach ourselves to do,” she said. They got started in her basement.
For 27 years, Vidabeth lived and worked in Asia, Europe and the Middle East and her travels still influence her work. She is also inspired by the natural setting of her home in Chatham County where she settled in 1991.
Photo: Vidabeth with some of her artwork and her four children in 1968 in Okinawa, Japan.