Wall art by Michael William Benton

from Muskoka, Canada

Find out more about Michael William Benton

Michael, where are you from and where do you live now?

I was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Raised in the town of Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada. I now reside in Windermere, Muskoka, Ontario, Canada.
How would you describe your artistic style?

My work is somewhere between narrative and conceptually based art. I experience an omnipresent resonance of Love-Light and the mysterious intelligence which creates it stemming from a vision I had 28 years ago. This vision took place at the Baldwins resort in Windermere, Muskoka, Ontario, Canada. I was 14 years of age. How can I describe something I cannot quite define? Visually, it was light brighter than the sun, but it did not hurt my eyes; a state of energetic bliss that felt like my being was billions of ecstatic particles. The omnipresent resonance of this event trains my focus on the mysterious foundation of matter, energy configuration, local and nonlocal consciousness. It reveals to me over and over that everything is from this foundation of possibilities. It is what I see, feel, think, and am compelled to express, but the focus of my work is not specifically about the vision itself. The focus is on concepts of entanglement, albeit in a rather poetic sense. Recognizing that my individuality is an entangled part of a massive/infinite whole. I create art from this perspective. I create art to express my own curiosities, and to capture what life is like for me at the moment the work is manifested. I share it with others to communicate that I am an individual rooted in and created of the same thing as everyone and everything else. I think of many things over the course of a drawing or painting, but when I am physically applying media to a substrate, thoughts move to a flow state where concepts of correlation between my consciousness awareness and consciousness manifested as objectified reality create images of the experience. If you consider the white of the paper, canvas, or screen as an infinite field of light, and from this field of information lines, shapes, colours, and sounds form with the concept as this field expressing itself.
What's on top of your bucket list (as an artist or just as a person)?

I’m fortunately living my bucket list: a creative life in a beautiful and inspiring environment.
Vector or watercolor

Watercolor, but I’d rather use ink and fluid acrylic paint.
New York or remote mountain hut?

Live in a remote mountain hut and use technology so my art is present in New York.
Becks or Merlot?

Neither thank you, I do not drink alcohol. I prefer dark roast black coffee or water.
And a little Proust: What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Living honestly according to my own perspective and world view.
Which living person do you most admire?

My mother, her ability to act from love is truly inspiring.
What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

Worthiness. Understanding the power and nature of your being and how it connects to everything makes everyone worthy.
What or who is the greatest love of your life?

The nature of our conscious awareness.
If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?

A muse.
The world needs more...

awareness of consciousness studies.
I’ve changed my mind about…

the certainty and solidity of the material world.
What most people don't understand is that…

all reality is consciousness objectified, and our consciousness is the intelligent infinity that is all things. Our minds are not confined to our brains because everything is a manifestation of our shared intelligent infinity nonlocal consciousness.

For each art print you buy, Michael William Benton and Photocircle plant trees in Ethiopia.

Since the beginning of 2021 we have been able to plant 134.587 trees in Ethiopia so far - these trees are estimated to absorb 10.766.960 kg CO₂ within the next five years