Driving through Camden, South Carolina one day in 1997, Benton stopped at a traffic light, and stared blankly, worrying over something or another, when three girls skipped across the road in front of him. They were holding hands and their dresses were moving as if choreographed to stir the soul. He had never painted before but he said to himself "I've got to paint this". When he got home he retrieved plywood and house paint from the garage, mixed up some colors and began painting. He fell into kind of a trance and when he came out of it he had painted about fifteen paintings. He took them to a friend who owns a gallery and asked her to tell him this work was no good so he could stop. Instead she asked to put them in her gallery. Benton grew up in Sumter, SC, where as a kid, he walked to school through a mystical city park with messages carved on trees and in the air. These walks taught him there are messages everywhere if you take time to notice. He is an unpublished novelist, and poet, and a published essayist. He's been a minister, a psychotherapist, a peach packer, a consultant, a hardware inventory taker, a fisherman, a football player and a listener of the elderly. Now he dabbles in paint.
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The Chair of Therapy 20 x 24 on wood $200 |
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Weight of Our Dreams 13 x 12 on wood $100 |
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Angry Man 11 x 14 on wood $95 |
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SOLD |
Bio Eyes 11 x 14 on wood $95 |
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SOLD |
Bugged Eyed Guy 11 x 14 on wood $95 |
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Big Ears 11 x 14 on wood $95 |
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Happy Man 11 x 14 on wood $95 |
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SOLD |
Mr. Bill 11 x 14 on wood $95 |
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Peaches 11 x 14 on wood $95 |
