About
McKayla Mae Bensheimer is an American printmaker and sculptor. She received her BFA in Sculpture from Herron School of Art and Design in 2019 and is now an MFA candidate at the University of Connecticut.
Bensheimer’s intent is to depict the contemporary human experience through portraiture and scenes in materials such as printmaking, painting, drawing, and a variety of three-dimensional mediums.
Bensheimer has shown her work in the USA and internationally. She has exhibited at the William Benton Museum of Art, Alexey Von Schlippe Gallery, Royal Birmingham Society of Artists Gallery, Indianapolis Art Center, and Eskenazi Fine Arts Center, among others. Her public works include a walkway mosaic installed at the Elmira Annis Irvington Civic Plaza in Indianapolis, IN.
Artist Statement
“We live our lives, suggested Rilke, in widening circles that reach out across the entire expanse.” -Collum McCann from Apeirogen
Each of us have our own experiences within the world around us. The details of our lives may be slightly different, or may be half a world away different. I am less interested in the differences and more interested in the common ground. In the emotions, relationships, and little moments of life that we all share. I make work about what I see in my own circle of everyday life. I travel and read to expand this circle and I hope that my work is able to reach across many people’s circles.
My works and the processes I use are meant to create moments of meditation and introspection for the viewer. I seek to connect and to show the shared experiences. Allow others to see themselves in my work, while also searching for myself in others.
My practice strives to represent life as it is now and the collective feelings and experiences innate to being a human. I wish to have an impact on those alive today as a means of connection and meditation while also living on in the future as a fragment of history.
It is important that my work retains the touch of the human hand, with all of its imperfections. This is one of the reasons why I am drawn to printmaking as a way of creating. This process and transformation of an image through this medium fascinates me.