Artist's Statement
© Pat Benincasa 2007 All Rights Reserved
My approach to being an artist is based upon rigorous research, study and my need to take materials beyond conventional use.
For example, I use glass in uncommon ways. I created a seven-ton, dimensional skylight for the Minnesota Judicial Center on the State Capitol Grounds and 3D, functioning window-sculpture for the Hill-Murray Chapel in Maplewood, Minnesota. Both projects pushed glass to heretofore-unknown sculptural and architectural possibilities. In response to my work with dimensional glass, I was invited to speak to the American Institute of Architects (my presentation was entitled, "Windows Like The Earth Were Once Thought To Be Flat").
I once read something that sums up my art making philosophy. When Martin Heidegger asked: "What is a thing?" and responded that " You know what a thing is by the way it gathers the world unto itself," his statement gave me a framework to define what art is. You know what art is by the way it gathers the world unto itself. To this I would add that Art is a point of proximity that dissolves the distinction between our "here and there" as it pulls us toward itself. In this pull we understand how connected we are to all living things. In this connection resides the Sacred.
Copyright Information:
Note:
All images are original artworks created by artist Pat Benincasa. The images
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