Welcome to our series, #WHYoming, brought to you in partnership with Commerce Bank of Wyoming.
We are highlighting people throughout our communities and asking them a few questions. We want to learn a little about them and see why they chose this great state to raise their families, start their businesses, or simply to ask — Why Wyoming?
For this monthly’s #WHYoming, I had a chance to talk with Ben Nathan, Assistant Professor of Art and the Art Gallery Director at Western Wyoming Community College. Ben is in his second year of teaching at Western, and he is a native of Sweetwater County. Growing up in Green River, he didn’t quite realize that pursuing art for a living was an option but it was through the educators in his life that he followed this life path. He finds it exciting and rewarding to now be able to be that educator for the other young artists in our community.
After graduating from Green River High School he earned a bachelor’s degree in printmaking and painting at the University of Wyoming, and then went to Utah State in Logan, Utah, where he attended graduate school for printmaking. When the opportunity to return to Sweetwater County was presented to him through an open position at Western, he jumped on the chance to come home. In his artwork, which primarily involves mixed media pieces with printmaking, painting and drawing, he explores his past that inherently includes his childhood in Green River.
Now, he and his wife have made Rock Springs their home. He loves the small town aspects of living in Sweetwater County, as well as the opportunities for outdoor activities. He emphasizes slowing down in his life, and Wyoming presents the perfect place for him to accomplish that.
Ben, how long have you been here at Western?
This is my second school year. So I’ve been here at Western and back in Rock Springs for just a little over year. I was in Logan, Utah, where I was in graduate school at Utah State, studying printmaking. Before that, I was in Laramie getting my bachelor’s degree in printmaking and painting.
How did you end up coming back to Sweetwater County?
Usually the application process for a professor, or a university or college job, is almost a year. So you apply around a year out, and then they do a bunch of vetting and interviews, and then they eliminate people, and then have some finalists. And so I was going through that during my last year of grad school, trying to get a teaching gig just anywhere, and I had nothing after about nine months of doing it. I got one offer to stay as a lecturer at Utah State for a three year contract, so I was going to do that. And then this job posting popped up here at Western, I think it was a last minute thing. And I thought, I’d love to go back to Wyoming. So I just applied, and then I got it. It was surprising though because it was a two month turnaround or something, versus that nine month or ten month process. So it’s kind of kismet.Â
What do you like most about your job?
I really like to teach the the students, and something I didn’t really ever think about or anticipate was how being back in Sweetwater County and getting students from Rock Springs or Green River High School especially, there’s this realization that, oh, that was me a few years ago. I just was studying art because I had a scholarship to do that, and I didn’t know what else to do, and then I just kept having good professors that kept encouraging me to do the next step along the trajectory of art. And so now, I knew that I wanted to be that for my students in general, but being back in Sweetwater County specifically, I’m just like, oh, I’m doing the exact thing that happened for me. I know what it’s like to be from like a mining community and nobody wants you to study art because you can’t make enough money to buy a boat or whatever, which is absolutely true, but if it’s what you wanna do, just don’t give up on it. And so I really like that. I get to be that person for some of these younger folks.
How did you initially get into art?
There’s a lot of artists that in an interview situation would be like, ‘oh, I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember,’ and I don’t fit that mold at all. I’ve always been really imaginative and creative, like playing imagination type games in the backyard and stuff, but actually one of my first creative outlets was sewing. I learned how to sew at my grandma’s house, so I would sew little costumes and play around all weekend. I didn’t actually get into the visual arts, like drawing and painting and things like that, until around middle school. Then I started considering myself, like, ‘I’m good at art.’ And then through high school, I kind of just did art, but that was more because I’d rather do this than woods or auto shop. So I don’t really think I thought of myself as really an artist until probably my sophomore or junior year of college, and then I started to get into exhibitions around the country. That was when I was like, oh, I’m really doing the thing now.
What artistic mediums do you work with the most?
It almost always comes back to some combination of printmaking and drawing. A lot of people aren’t very familiar with printmaking, but it’s basically, you use something, whether it’s a flat sheet of plywood or a flat piece of linoleum or an 18 gauge copper sheet, and you manipulate that thing on that surface in such a way that it will repel and accept ink in different spots, and you use that to make an image. Then using a printing press, you transfer ink from that thing that you made onto a piece of paper. So I like to start with that but I never can just leave it alone so then i usually just draw and paint on top of those prints afterward.
What do you find inspires and influences your work the most?
I have two kids, a first grader and a three year old. So a big one is them. I have a pretty sharp memory when it comes to just random dumb stuff from being a kid, like I’ll remember this chair that I used to have, or I remember what it smells like to pull weeds in my grandma’s garden on Saturday because free labor. So I remember those kinds of things and I reflect on them. It’s sort of this personal process of letting go of the past and acknowledging the past, whether it’s something that’s a pleasant memory or something that’s uncomfortable or traumatic or whatever. Just as a person, I like to give myself time to categorize and deal with those things, and then kind of give them a platform. And that’s what my art’s about.
But since I’ve had kids and they’re in these ages now, I’ll remember the first day of first grade, or I remember being in a preschool group with some other kids from the neighborhood and things like that. And I see my kids in similar situations, and then my mind just does this big comparison, like, this is how their experience was, and this is how my experience was, I remember it. Then also I bring in this idea of, this is how I feel as a parent, and I wonder if my parents were feeling the same thing, or maybe I can speculate in these situations and maybe they approached it in a different way. It’s all about kind of reflecting on the past and the present, sort of in a way of preparing myself for the future and being able to be a considerate, empathetic person moving forward, and being ready to deal with anything in a healthy sort of way. It’s all really convoluted but my life and my art is all just together.
What was it like growing up in Green River?
I had a great time. I mean, there’s all these outdoor aspects like mountain biking or hiking, being out in the hills and in the desert or swimming in the river, and then also just tons of parks and outdoor spaces to use in the summer. So for me, as soon as summer was around, I’d have all these crazy adventures, well not crazy but in your mind when you’re eight, they’re crazy. It was just really enjoying nature, enjoying the outdoors and enjoying living in a community that’s safe enough for you to just to be a young person walking around or riding bikes around town all day. When I think of Green River, specifically in growing up there, I just think about all the time I spent just messing around outside around town, just doing whatever.Â
What is something unique about you?
Beyond being an artist which I think can be unique, I think I’m kind of just a boring dude. I like go to work and teach art and then I go home and eat dinner and read books to my kids and then do bedtime, and then try not to fall asleep for a couple of hours because I feel like I shouldn’t have to go to bed when they go to the bed. I don’t know if there’s anything too interesting about me.
What are some of your other hobbies?
Keeping in the vein of what I did in Green River growing up, I like to go outside, I like to ride bikes, I like to play disc golf, which is something that they have around here but it’s really, really big in Utah. And so when I lived in Utah I got into that. And besides that, I really enjoy reading, mostly fantasy or sci-fi books, because again that imagination side of me. I also enjoy watching Survivor, which a new season just started last week. I just like to do boring, introverted person stuff. I like to hang out with my family and do those things. And I feel less comfortable doing those things with other people, so alone time’s really nice for me too, regardless of the activity.
What do you appreciate most about our community?
I think something that I really appreciate about this community is how generous a lot of people are. I mean, obviously, we in this community are fortunate, compared to a lot of other communities in our country and worldwide, in that most people make a comfortable living. And I think, as a direct result of that, people are willing to be really generous with their time and their money. Whether it’s booster clubs for high school athletics, or even activities we have here on campus at Western, people want to participate in some way and be supportive. And I think in some ways it’s kind of a small town community thing where it just feels good to be involved in supporting other groups and other people that have things going on. I really admire that about Sweetwater County.
If you could give one brief piece of advice, what would it be?
Oh, you you gotta slow down a little bit. So going back to looking at my kids and seeing how they deal with the world, and then reflecting on that, and then making art about it ultimately. A couple of years ago, I noticed my son was only like two years old, and he could walk, but like a two year old, so really slow. And sometimes I’d get really impatient going for walks because he would stop and pick up a stick and be fascinated with that. And then I’d get him to move on, and then he’d be fascinated with an ant on the sidewalk, and then a rock, and then a piece of grass, and then a leaf. And one day it just clicked like, why am I being so impatient? I used to be fascinated by this sort of stuff too, and in years since I’ve really been making a concerted effort to be fascinated by just simple things. And it it’s really rewarding to have that happen for you as an adult who’s just busy and has to do all this dumb stuff that adults have to do all the time. But it all comes down to just slowing down, also with regards to, like, how you treat other people and how you react in stressful situations. If you just slow down a little bit, things go better across the board.Â
Where is your favorite place to hang out in Sweetwater County?
It’s kind of between two because I live in Rock Springs now, but obviously grew up in Green River. And Green River is just the river. It’s not even just our Green River but just any body of fresh water, I just feel like I need to jump in and just swim around for a little bit. I’m not a great swimmer, but I just like to be in the water. That’s how I feel is the best, most pure way for me to experience nature is to find some water and get in it. We don’t have a river here in Rock Springs, but I do live right on the edge of town so it’s about a block walk to just be in the desert and just kind of no man’s land. And so between the really sandy desert that we have here in Rock Springs outside of town, or the river in Green River, those are my favorite places.
If you had all the time and resources necessary, what’s a skill you would want to learn?
This goes back to the art thing, but I think it’d be really awesome to create really big installation type sculpture things. And I do roughly know how to weld, and I have had jobs in the past where I operated machinery, so I think I could do a lot of those things, but I’ve never put it all together to be this artist who makes just massive sculptures. And I think that that would be awesome, but I don’t have the resources or the time.
What is one, or a few, of your proudest accomplishments?
I think I felt really proud of just being a dad in general. I didn’t have much to do with that other than I was just there and like hey there’s two babies in our life now and I’ll just be around. But I’ve been really trying for the past six and a half years that I have been a dad to make a concerted effort to make sure that I’m around for important times. So like meal times or play times or reading a book. And in a lot of regards, that’s part of why I’ve decided to be an educator, because I get summers off and holidays off which allows me to be there for my kids. I don’t know if it’s accomplishment really, but I feel proud of the fact that I’ve been able to be around for them. And I think that my kids feel as comfortable with myself or their mom. Even now where you really need a two income household, I feel pretty proud of the fact that my wife and I have been able to work together to make sure that we’re there as parents.
What would you sing at karaoke night?
I’m such an awkward person, I get nervous about things like that. But I probably would pick Teenage Dirt Bag by Wheatus, because I’m a bad singer anyway and they intentionally sing that weird falsetto.
How would your friends describe you?
I think laid back and sort of quiet, unless they ask me the right or wrong question, however you wanna look at it, and then I just don’t shut up if it’s a passionate topic. But I think kind of laid back and quiet.
Who would you want to play you in a movie about your life?
Oh, somebody just really handsome and tall. For one, I’d be portrayed in a really great way, but also walking around in the aftermath of the movie, nobody would recognize me because I am neither handsome nor tall.
Why do you choose to live in Wyoming?
A lot of it comes down to that community sort of thing, and I grew up here. I know what people are like here. And I like a lot of the things about how people are around here. It’s also smaller, it’s easier to do that slowing down thing that I really advocate for. And it’s just, it’s home, and it’s nice to be home.
This community series is brought to you by our great sponsors at Commerce Bank of Wyoming.
