While each painting objectively should stand on it’s own, my main focus of artworks makes up my life story. There is a continued narrative among each iteration. As a group, they are split into six current sections or “eras”, but only five are started. Most work that has not started is already planned out. I know exactly how I want them to look and how I want them to feel. After all, it is my life and memory.
Follow the story of my life story in these paintings, grouped by their respected eras:
2011 - 2013
This era starts with meeting my second fiancee. Following the relationship as it builds, as we both grow together. Herself dragging me out of my previous “Dark Era” with loving support and to guiding me to become the man I am now, living life the best I can make of it. The era expands of topics of love, loss, and the beginnings of trauma.
No current works in this era are completed yet. I’m still preparing myself for it. This era is both the most amazing point of my life and the most devastating to me.
2014 - 2018
After the night of my life’s largest loss, this era begins. This era is mainly uneventful, myself living in emotional purgatory and suppression. Six years of living through the effects of devastating trauma. The era expands on topics of living life on autopilot, and being passive to the atrocities occurring around one’s self.
No current works in this era have been completed yet.
2018 - 2020
This era follows the events that took place that lead me to seek healing my traumas. It follows my journey to finally start to break free of traumatic emotional suppression, and coming back to who I was once again. The era expands on topics of vulnerability, love, betrayal, deceit, and overwhelming confrontation to previously suppressed emotions.
The paintings are intentionally mute of color and dark in this era, and saturation and lightness starts to be introduced as the series progress, as the willingness to live life comes back to me. The series will end in explosions of vibrant color.
More context in this era will be expanded on when The Hart’s Desire era paintings are completed.
2020 - 2023
This era follows me trying to escape the painful memories of my home and seek out peace. Running into difficulties that would lead me back to art while being stuck in a near frozen and frozen hellhole. The era expands over a lot of topics of wanderlust, regret, and shifting through the consequences of loss.
The paintings in this era are meant to be vibrant and colorful, as I am finally alive again, after breaking free of traumatic emotional suppression.
More context in this era will be expanded on when The Hart’s Desire era paintings are completed.
2024 - present
This era follows dealing with the fallout of the previous events and is when I would begin painting as a necessity. Seeking only a life of being content and peace. The era expands on a lot of topics of peacefulness, being content, and appreciating the little moments.
The colorfulness is a little more dull, but still present in this era, to reflect the rolling theme.
Ben Young is a contemporary fine artist originally from Appalachia, Ohio. Originally a Software Engineer, he began painting in watercolor and oil less than two years ago, and his work has quickly gained attention for its emotional depth and storytelling. Each piece is a personal narrative, rooted in lived experience and expressed through a sensitive, evocative style. Each piece touches on themes of loss, love, family, and resilience, often drawing from his own life, including the tragic loss of his fiancée and journey it took to overcome those emotional burdens. His paintings resonate with collectors drawn to authenticity, vulnerability, and a fresh, emerging voice in American art.
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