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Welcome to my website, I hope you will enjoy your stay and perhaps discover something interesting or inspirational along the way. 

Although first and foremost you could describe me as an artist, I have many varied interests that would make it difficult to categorically pigeonhole me. Besides my explorations in painting, drawing, and sculpture, I also frequently study many other subjects and compete quite regularly in Chess as well as Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. After teaching myself to speak, read, and write Greek to a basic degree of fluency, I've decided to explore other languages as well. My various goals/ambitions in these regards are more fully covered in my blog.

On this website you will find:

Mental/Physical Exploration Blog: Where I describe my trials and tribulations while pursuing my various interests along with observations on the things that I've learned up to that point.

Martial Arts / Chess: I compete quite regularly in both so included on this website are various writings and thoughts on both as well as a brief description of my accomplishments in both.

Ideas Repository: Everywhere I go I carry with me a little notepad to write down any interesting ideas that pop into my head. Over the years I have amassed too many ideas for one person to pursue so I've decided to put them online for others to use if they so wish.

Writings: An area where my general essays. short stories, poems, etc will be kept.

Image Gallery: An area with more photographs of my artwork.

Deviant T-Shirts: A page with a link to several designs I've created for t-shirts and other apparel. I wanted to create t-shirts that were a bit different and this was the result.

I have received several questions regarding something I had written on a postcard I had produced to promote my website. If you haven’t seen the postcard, it says:

“Robert Bentley explores the human figure using many different lenses and he derives his inspiration from theoretical physics, biology, evolutionary psychology and philosophy. Whether he is “taking a line for a walk” in an instant or continually revisiting a study in non-Euclidean geometry over several years Robert Bentley’s work remains firmly grounded in the human condition.”

There is a lot contained in that little snippet and expanding upon what was written there would be a good way to start my Artist’s statement.

There are two things I am referring to when I use the expression “many different lenses”. The first is that we exist in relation to our environment and a great deal of who we are is directly related to the culture and the times in which we live. Our world is complex and many-sided and if I focused solely on the more ephemeral or conceptual aspects I would be blinding myself to much that is related to these experiences. This blindness would limit my vision and hence limit my Art. The second thing I am referring to in this passage is that these pieces are all part of the whole. There is a unity to knowledge and one discovery or insight in one “discipline” could be related to or inspire another.

We must understand that language is an incredibly powerful tool, but not a mirror of reality. There is nothing in the words “Theoretical Physics” other than a convenient hook for us to hang our thoughts upon. Where theoretical physics “ends” and chemistry “begins” is nothing more than an agreed upon linguistic convention used to provide useful scientific models. Because of the arbitrary nature of these (albeit absolutely necessary) labels it is a mistake to consider reality itself likewise compartmentalized. In summary, when I say that I use many lenses I am merely stating that to see clearly you need to see everything that colours your experience as well as understand the unity underlying knowledge itself.

The second part of that phrase simply mentions two (of many) ways that I approach the creation of my Art and where it’s grounded. There are moments when I begin a line drawing without thought or intention and almost allow the line to take itself where it wishes. Sometimes I do not even lift the pen from the paper – allowing the figure to uncover itself whilst leaving evidence of the process of its birth. There are also projects that I continually revisit, unable to put my finger on what it is that’s missing I keep coming back… searching…adding...sometimes completely destroying until I am left with something that feels right, or something I have overworked and must discard.

When I state that everything remains firmly grounded in the “human condition” I am referring to the fact that my art is not created solely for myself. My Art is not some intellectual masturbatory exercise where I can indulge in how clever I am or worse, wallow in self-pity. I want to see more deeply and more clearly and communicate what it is that I see. For any of this to occur the human creator and the human audience need to be an integral underlying thread tying every single work and exploration together. 

I also have many other goals outside of my artistic ones; if you are interested in following some of these you can read my blog. The goals that I have decided to keep track of are Art, Martial Arts, Chess, and Language Studies.