Denita Benyshek

  1. Bachelor Buttons Glowing in the Sun, I Disappear in Light (2023) – watercolor and ink; 10.5 x 13.875 in.
  2. L’Origine du Monde (The Origin of the World, after Courbet) (2024) – gold acrylic paint, watercolor, ink, on cotton rag paper; 9.25 x 11.5 in.
  3. Night Garden 9, The Arrival of Her Majesty (2024) – mixed media (acrylic, ink, chalk and oil pastel on cotton rag paper); 18.25 x 13 in.
  4. Night Garden 11, The Queen and her Consorts (2024) – acrylic paint, ink, archival pigment ink, watercolor, on cotton rag paper; 8.5 x 12.5 in.
  5. The Circle of Love (2024) – ink, acrylic, watercolor, archival pigment ink on cotton rag paper; 18.75 x 11.25 in.
  6. The Little Flora (2024) – acrylic paint, ink, archival pigment ink, on cotton rag paper; 13.5 x 8.25 in.
  7. The Maker of Flowers (2024) – chalk pastel, watercolor, ink, archival pigment ink on cotton rag paper; 13 x 19 in.
  8. The Mother. We Are Born of the Earth. (2024) – acrylic paint, ink, archival pigment ink, watercolor, on cotton rag paper; 8.25 x 13.75 in.

 

ARTIST STATEMENT

My artwork is influenced by my Czech heritage, gardens, nature, quantum physics, life sciences, folk art, animism, and transpersonal psychology. As is common in Slavic art, visions and dreams are interwoven with sensate reality. My visual language integrates heightened color, nonlinear time, reverie-provoking discontinuos space, intuitive combinations, and a belief in the transcendent power of beauty.

My current, metamodernist creative process begins with gardening, followed by drawings and watercolor paintings of the garden. I then photograph details of these paintings, which are digitally manipulated to create abstracted symmetrical compositions. In 2024, I created over 200 digital images. Printed with archival pigment ink on cotton rag paper, I then further develop the work with ink, watercolor, acrylic, and pastels, resulting in unique, multi-media artworks. This series has expanded to painted canvases. These abstractions represent how I experience inspirited nature, radiant, powerful, mystical, and magical, represented in a form that can be shared with the audience.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Born in a rural Czech immigrant community in north central Kansas, Dr. Benyshek earned a BFA from Wichita State University, an MFA from the University of Washington, and, from Saybrook University, San Francisco, a graduate certificate in the psychology of creativity, with an MA, and a PhD in humanistic and transpersonal psychology. In 2018, Benyshek underwent a traditional Naerim Gut (shamanic initiation) with three women mansins (shamans) from South Korea. Her research, on contemporary artists as shamans, was published in the USA, England, Poland, Hungary, and China. Awards include a full scholarship to the Pilchuck Glass School and an artist-in-residence grant from the Ucross Foundation, Wyoming. In 2022, OpenStudios selected Benyshek as the Botanica gardens, Wichita, artist-in-residence and, in 2024, Benyshek received a grant from the Koch Cultural Trust.
Her artworks were included in group exhibits in west coast museums, with solo exhibits in Seattle, WA, Portland, OR, Sun Valley, ID, and Santa Fe, NM. Public collections include the UW Medical Center, Harborview Medical Center, King County Ethnic Heritage Collection, Glass Museum, Ebeltoft, Denmark, and Snoqualmie Point Park. Upcoming exhibits include Viridian Artists, New York City, with solo exhibits at Reuben Saunders Gallery (2025) and the Ulrich Museum of Art (2027).

artist’s website

© Denita Benyshek