Artist Interview

In my small rural hometown (Hillsdale, N.Y.), there is a new gallery/residency being finished. I decided to interview the artist that is heading the project. His name is Ben Tritt and he’s a contemporary painter/ sculpture/ designer.

1.) What were you doing before you were doing art? What types of jobs did you have? Were you always doing art?
A: He said he was always interested in art. The first two years out of high school, he was majoring in Pre-Med. He was interested in the human body. He realized that he would look at the body more as art and not for medical purposes. After two years passes, he’s now twenty years old and he decides he wants to become a painter. So, he dropped out of school and went to Italy. He stayed in Florence for six months and spent a lot of time in different churches. He was inspired by the architecture and paintings. He also travelled around Europe to places like France, Holland, England and Spain. His main interest was Renaissance Art. When he was twenty-five, he moved to Jerusalem to help start a school for classical painting and drawing. He taught at this school for six years. Now, his main interest is helping and teaching other artists and focusing on his own work.

2.) Where did you grow up, do you have any siblings, and does your family affect your work?
A: He explained that he has one sister with whom he grew up in Merrick, NY (Long Island). His sister is a Photo-Journalist. His dad was a painter; so his family did not neglect the fact that he wanted to become an artist. He believes that there is an artist in everyone, but society rejects art and makes people think art is inferior to other professions.

3.) How did you get to this small rural town? (Hillsdale, New York)
A: He said that it was a strategic decision and that there is a movement of artists relocating away from NYC. The relocation started out in the Hamptons and now it is moving up the Hudson River, for example the DIA Foundation in Newburgh, NY. He also explained that there are a lot of galleries throughout the Berkshires and other parts in or near the Hudson. The town of Hillsdale is a center point and is within travelling distance from NYC and Boston. This is the reason he chose my home town.

4.) Are you influenced by any other artists?
A: Courbet, Roman fresco paintings, Giotto, Titian, contemporary painters such as Kiefer, Richter, Barnaby Furnas and a majority of Renaissance Painting influences him.

5.) What is your main goal?
A: His goal is to open galleries/residencies all over the world in places such as Jerusalem, Hillsdale, Lima (Peru), Johannesburg (South Africa), Hong Kong, India, Brussels, etc. Also, he looks to educate people and show the cultural value of art.

6.) Where are you getting the money to do this? How do you support these places?
A: He explained that funds are coming from private donors and private foundations. Currently, he and his co-workers are opening a gallery in Jerusalem and finishing the gallery in Hillsdale. Next, they will be going on to Lima, Peru and so on. He is supporting these places by renting out the studio spaces, hence making them like residencies.

7.) How much does it cost to rent a studio space?
A: He said that it would cost a little under $300 per month to rent a studio. He also talked about how it would be slightly selective.

8.) Are you going to have curators and critics, like a regular residency?
A: He said yes and that he also wants to have lectures and classes. So overall, it is not quite like a residency. Instead of a select group voting on people’s work to get studio space, he is going to have a democratic process where the people that are already in the studios are going to get to vote on the newcomers. They will decide if the newcomers’ work is good enough to be selected for a studio space. Also, the artists who decide to rent a studio will have to have a focused discipline like painting, sculpture, photography, ceramics, etc.

9.) Then we talked about change and discussed how it is hard to change people because they are so stuck in their ways. He asked me how I think people can be changed and how do you pull people out of their comfort zones?
A: I was stumped with this question. People are so stuck in their ways and it is too hard to change people. Opening this gallery/residency is a big change for the town of Hillsdale and people don’t really know how to react. I gave him the example of my grandmother. I told him that when I moved in with her, I would do stupid things, like not make the bed in the morning or not clean out the tub after a shower and she would freak out. Why, because every day she makes sure the beds are made and the shower is always clean and I messed up or changed that routine and hell broke loose. People can’t except change because they are stuck in their comfort zones. I don’t think there is any way to change people.

10.) Lastly, I asked him what he thought about art as a name/brand and why people spend so much money?
A: He discussed his reasoning of why people get a lot of money for their art and why people don’t get a lot of money for their art. He explained that there are people that are good at what they do, there are people that are great at what they do, and that there are people that are outstanding at what they do. He then went on to explain that a specific person can be defined as outstanding by a tiny fraction. And, that tiny fraction is what separates the millionaires from the non-millionaires. He also said that it’s an obsession.