........The purpose of my art is to embrace the illusive, emotional content of traditional beauty. I aspire to communicate the feeling behind magical moments---light filtering through leaves that make memories of a sun-filled afternoon. -Curtis Benzle

........Elegant and graceful, Curtis Benzle’s translucent, porcelain lighting gently echoes the natural world. With an internal light source, the luminous quality of the individually formed and painted porcelain leaves, petals and creatures creates a soothing environmental ambiance. In addition to the complexity of the surface pattern and the significance of the color choices, Braille messages are encoded on occasional leaves. These messages pay quiet homage to life’s significant treasures.

........Curtis Benzle’s sculptural lighting is created using a porcelain that is, in fact, only 20% kaolin clay. The remaining 80% is traditional glass-forming feldspars and silica blended with the clay to yield the highest possible degree of translucency in a malleable material. Colored, refractory stains are blended directly into the porcelain. The white and colored porcelains are layered so that, when illuminated, the seemingly white porcelain leaves are translucently transformed into a vivid autumnal palette of coral, yellow, orange and green. Simplicity yields to complexity as individual leaves overlap, forming complex and fascinating patterns.

........Curtis is married to Wendy Wilson and the two live in Huntsville Alabama. He has three beautiful grown children, two sons, Elliott and Kyle, and a wonderful daughter named Marisa, all of whom live togeter just outside of Columbus, Ohio.

SELECTED EXHIBITION AND AWARDS National Endowment for the Arts---Fellowship Ohio Arts Council Fellowship White House Collection 21st Century Ceramics Seto Center for Ceramics and Glass-World Expo, Aichi Japan St. Joseph Gallerie Invitational, Netherlands
SELECTED COLLECTIONS Smithsonian Renwick Collection National Collection of American Art Cleveland Museum of Art Los Angeles County Museum of Art Museo Internazionale della Ceramiche, Faenze, Italy Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC

CurtisBenzle@gmail.com