" I am endlessly fascinated and attracted to all types of printed materials. It has always amazed me to see the variety and volume of things that are printed. Every place I go I see how lithography, screen-printing, stenciling and rubber-stamping are being used to advertise, identify, mark, and communicate. I always observe what is unique about a new place for its printed and reproduced imagery. While in Borneo I wanted to create something where I could use my attraction to all this ink, color, symbolism, mysterious Chinese lettering, Hindi characters, and Islamic calligraphy. I enjoyed collecting every oddly printed thing that I could find - from soy drink cans smashed flat on the road - to hell paper notes that are burned in the Chinese Buddhist temples. I bought cheap spray paint, tore paper folded in half into Rorschach test symmetry and used urethane resin to hold it all together. Searching for contrast in colors and values, I built layer upon layer of color, paper, canvas, plastic and tissue. While I painted my portraits, I emptied my brushes on my collages not wanting to waste a drop of my precious imported pigments. These collages are a journal of my 2 years here in Borneo in a printed, sprayed, splattered whirlwind. Can you find the road-killed, sun-baked frog pancake.   "

The collages are all 9 x 27 inches and are mixed media on canvas mounted on board, Stephen Bennett 2005.