Wayfinding: A Solo Exhibition featuring Bridget Benton ~ Opening Night

Please join us for this special evening to celebrate the opening for ” WAYFINDING”- solo show featuring local artist Bridget Benton. It will be a joyful evening of community, refreshments and a brand new art collection that tells a story. . .

In the summer of 2023, artist Bridget Benton walked 415km on the Camino Francés in northern Spain, beginning in Saint Jean Pied de Port and ending in Santiago de Compostela. These were the first steps in a year-long journey that led her out of her marriage, to an artist’s residency in Ireland, and ultimately back to herself. 

On the Camino, Benton followed a path trod by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims before her. The path of the Camino was marked by yellow arrows, scallop shells, and cairns, among other wayfinding symbols, and Benton was struck by how easy it became to spot the arrow or the shell on a graffiti-covered wall or at a confusing village intersection. The path back to herself wasn’t as well marked, but still contained signs that she also learned to intuitively identify.

This body of work, shown for the first time at ArtPlay, documents this journey and the internal process of wayfinding. Benton uses her signature style of mixed media collage in encaustic, incorporating photographic image transfer, nature print, torn book pages, and silkscreen prints.  Each piece contains a reference to wayfinding and the path through pain and into hope and healing.