About
Ben Higdon was born and raised in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Staying several weeks a summer at Grand Haven, on the east shore of Lake Michigan, he spent days watching the horizon for lake freighters crawling into view, and evenings watching the Cannonball, a nightly freight train that ran through Grand Haven on its way from Muskegon to Grand Rapids. Back at home, Kalamazoo had a wealth of aging industry and railroad activity. He lived in a neighborhood built shortly after the turn of the century to house local factory worker families. Ben grew up with his mom and dad and three older brothers on Egleston Avenue on the south side of downtown Kalamazoo. An appreciation for the paper industry, ships, and trains was passed down through his family from the beginning.
Drawing had always been Ben's pasttime, and that was still the case when he took some classes in drawing at Kalamazoo College with Professor Tom Rice. Oil painting and watercolor classes soon followed, and painting took hold of his creative side. Ben graduated from K College with a degree in business in 2001, and spent the next four years developing his painting in Michigan. In 2005 he moved west to Portland, Oregon, pursuing the vibrant community, industry, and natural areas found there for their artistic inspiration. He lives now in Southeast Portland and enjoys life in the Pacific Northwest, in between attempts to capture it on canvas.