Ben Lastufka is a California contemporary surrealist painter. He was born in 1980 in Grass Valley, California, where his artistic process began as a child and was influenced by large industrial remnants of his hometown’s mining history. Ben became fascinated with nature’s inevitable role in the transformation of life and land. Throughout his life, he has been criticized for his love of crippled structures, dead trees and the remains of deceased creatures. But to Ben, the beauty is not just the subject’s current state. The beauty also lies in its history and its future.
One thing hastens into being, another hastens out of it. Even while a thing is in the act of coming into existence, some part of it has already ceased to be. Flux and change are for ever renewing the fabric of the universe, just as the ceaseless sweep of time is for ever renewing the face of eternity.
-Marcus Aurelius
Ben received his Bachelor degree in Fine Art from Sonoma State University in 2010 where he studied under artists such as Mark Perlman and Jann Nunn. He now lives in Santa Rosa, CA and spends much of his time in his studio in Occidental where he applies a wide range of techniques and processes to his art. He has exhibited his work in several group exhibitions as well as two solo shows. His works reside in several corporate, private and educational collections around the Bay Area.
While Ben’s art still very much represents this simple notion of life and death, his primary source of inspiration is the current state of the world and humanity’s historical and sustained contribution.