Artist Statement
While supervising client print jobs as a brand image graphic designer in Santa Monica for 30 plus years, I discovered “make readies.” These were test sheets, smothered with unintentionally printed layers of ink from disparate, unrelated jobs. These captivated me and became the inspiration and foundation for my visual exploration beyond my day work.
The iterative process that grew from my digital design experience became what enthralls me still—the excitement of discovering variations while essentially improvising, not unlike a jazz musician.
Both sides of my education—degrees in art history, painting and drawing, and communication design, with decades of offset printing experience—converged into something fresh and exhilarating. A doorway into the art world.
I've always been drawn to repetition and variation—Monet painting the same haystack again and again, capturing different light and moments. Or Warhol repeating Marilyn's face in shifting colors. Monet chased something almost spiritual in perception; Warhol took a different approach, intentionally stripping away emotion into flat advertising sensibility. My work lives somewhere between those impulses, occupying mostly the abstract part of the spectrum.
Using typography in my design practice, I was fascinated with how layered fonts became fragments interacting with images. This became my visual language. I called this work "well-involved vacant structures," after seeing a press sheet fragment with words relating to firefighting. "Well-involved" suggested the multitude of layered imagery; "vacant structures" implied the abstract nature of mostly indecipherable messaging.
I later realized "make-ready" now echoed Duchamp's "readymades"—an unintentional wink and nod to art history. Whereas Duchamp took finished everyday objects and declared them art through recontextualized appropriation, I use abstract fragments never meant to be seen together, finding inspiration in what was destined for recycling.
Each series began as a singular work. The iterations of which exist as digital files awaiting the printing of editions. The singular works are just that—one of a kind.
–Benj Čziller, Ojai CA
MakeReady, 1985-2025 Series’ (well-involved Vacant Structures), Iterative and Individual Works.
CHAIRS, (MakeReady Series 1) 2019-2023. 28X32. Printed dyes, encaustic, canvas mounted on board. Original, plus 99 digital iteratives. Limited edition of (9) each.
