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Nicolette Benjamin BlackThe Storm Ball Point Pen & Watercolor on Canvas 24” x 24”Vortex Ball Point Pen on Canvas 24” x 24”Through her ballpoint pen on canvas drawings, artistNicolette Benjamin Black offers us a candid responseto Western society’s addiction to consumer goods andthe pressing need to own the latest piece of gadgetry ornewest upgrade. What has resulted from this obsessionis an increasingly growing mountain of unwanted, castoffstuff, with seemingly no place in this world. As Blackexplains, “I have viewed this rubbish as a rich source ofraw materials for the production of artworks that commenton the wastefulness of Western consumerist lifestyle andask us to reconsider the cost of the many items we nowtake for granted in our day-to-day living.” Instead, Blackre-imagines these discarded belongings in new waysin her images, seamlessly integrating them into naturallandscapes and terrains.Black’s drawings deliver this message of sustainabilityand assimilation as she skillfully blends the figurativewith the abstract, with broad strokes juxtaposed againstcareful, highly detailed renderings. Color is sometimesintroduced into her neutral palette, creating a striking Nicolette in her Studiocontrast that speaks volumes. Her extensive experienceworking with the largest Aboriginal art collection in the world (housed in the National Gallery of Australia) is clearly reflected in herart, which bears traces of the famous Aboriginal dot paintings. This serves to reinforce a reliance on geometrical patterns in herwork, which lends a sense of holistic order and balance to the overall composition.What Black’s drawings do is point us as a society in a new direction, where seemingly useless items can be creatively reconfiguredinto something entirely new, where scrap electric cables can be rewoven into baskets and tea bags turned into artwork. Here, shehas been inspired by native cultures such as those of the Australian Aboriginals and the African Masai. “Why can’t we be like theMasai? When they see an empty petrol can, they see the new wall on their house. When they see an old tire, they see new shoes.”Nicolette Benjamin Black currently works in Canberra, and lives in Murrumbateman, Australia, where she lives with her husbandon a 10-acre sustainable farm.www.nicolettebenjaminblack.comwww.Agora-Gallery.com/ArtistPage/Nicolette_Benjamin_Black.aspx58 ARTisSpectrum