Benji Loves Bugs is a piece made entirely of painted, layered pieces cut from grocery bags. The piece focuses on family elements and things that remind me of specific family members. The piece is named after my father, Benjamin Frost Hale. In an elementary school report card the teacher noted that my dad struggled to pay attention in class but applauded how “Benji Loves Bugs".” The fishing lures collaged are all modeled after lures of my father’s my sister had framed after he passed. The horse shoe & #1 ribbon are a nod to my Grandfather Jim who is in both the Horse Racing Hall of Fame for his horse Noah and the Vermont Agriculture Hall of fame. The wishing rock cairns are for my mother and the females on her side of the family who collect wishing rocks from the streams and mountains of Vermont.

Like all my collages this piece is chalk-full of little wrinkles, folds, dabs of glue and other “flaws” that add character to the piece and bring life to it.