Creating Community with Marquette painter Catherine Benda

MARQUETTE — This is the Marquette studio where artist Catherine Benda creates her unique abstract paintings. Her primary inspiration comes from what she sees in nature.

“Most of my subject matter comes from nature and has its influence from flora and fauna and things that I’ve seen in my travels or from living in the Upper Peninsula for the last 40 years,” says Catherine.

Catherine describes her art as abstract with a touch of realism.

“It’s abstract with a little bit of symbolism and subject matter,” she explains. “You may know you’re looking at something like a landscape or a floral, and the shapes are there to kind of give that hint. So maybe a little bit of realism, but mostly abstract.”

She draws on shapes, colors, and patterns that she finds in nature, and makes them her own to create these unique pieces.

“I like to redefine what I see, take it in, and then interpret it on how it impacts me,” Catherine says. “So if I see something that’s visually very stimulating or even interesting because it has a repeated pattern or shapes, I think what I can do with that pattern or shape with paint. So you might see a repeated leaf type pattern, and that might come from just walks in the woods or plants in a pot in the house. But what can I do to make it a little bit more interesting and different.”

Catherine says nature is such an inspiration to her because we as humans are so tied to it. By looking to trees and flowers and other life in nature, we can find parallels to our own lives.

“I don’t think it’s obvious all the time that everything we do is so connected to our environment,” says Catherine. “When we talk about things in nature flourishing, it’s lush and doing well and it has what it needs, it has the sun and the right environment. I was thinking in terms of, what do we need to flourish? And if we take our cues from plants and the environment on what’s needed, we’ll flourish. So I think it’s just that connection to it; we are so connected with it.”

For Catherine, art always has been and always will be part of who she is as a person. She says whether she has a piece on display in a show at the moment or she’s creating for herself, she’s always working on something, typically almost every day of the week. She says everyone needs an outlet to express themselves, and art is certainly that outlet for her.

“It’s really at the core of who we are to self-express,” Catherine says. “So for me, self-expression comes through my painting. For somebody else it might be music or writing. How we express ourselves really lets us be more of our authentic selves. So art really gets to the core of who I am.”

To see more of Catherine’s paintings and to learn more about her art, visit her Instagram or her website.