Artist Statement
One of the things I enjoy about making paintings, specifically about so called “ordinary or mundane” scenes or objects, is trying to present these things in a way that the viewer might discover beauty or poetry in something normally overlooked.
I am often attracted to busy, chaotic subject matter and the irony that is present in them. I’m especially drawn to the visual noise found in retail stores, malls, and amusement parks. Often there is so much going on in these commercial environments, that it becomes an “attack” on our senses. This sensory overload seems to cause our minds to block out much of the visual noise, so that what was meant to be an attention grabbing seductive scene has the opposite effect.
Biography
Lane Bennion has been affected by many different influences in his life. The first painting he remembers was Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks. He remembers seeing a small reproduction while he was thumbing through his high school textbook. He was so fascinated by the scene, he carefully cut out the picture to keep. At the time he didn’t know much about the artist, but he remembers the way it made him feel.
While studying at the University of Utah he mentored under artists David Dornan, Paul Davis, and Tony Smith. He later went on to graduate in Medical Illustration. Through the university’s art program he learned the technical aspects of how to construct a painting that would invite the viewer to participate in the scene, helping to “finish” the work.
Lane attended Salt Lake Community College, received his Bachelor of University Studies from University of Utah in 1998, and his Master of Science (medical illustration) from the Medical College of Georgia in 2000.