Ben Brummerhop has spent three decades finding novel ways to forge beauty out of chaos. Although his abstract paintings hang in more and more prominent exhibitions with each passing year, simple concepts like color, shape and motion still guide his creative process.

It starts with something much more personal, though. Hidden beneath textured layers of acrylic on each canvas are relics of Ben’s lifelong search for meaning — literally, in fact, as he doesn’t paint a single stroke until he scrawls a few cathartic words on the taut fabric.

It is this deep involvement in his process that earns national tours for collections like “A New Use For Syringes” and lands his pieces in showings such as Art Basel and SWISSARTEXPO. More importantly — to Ben, at least — it seals rare, lifelong bonds with clients and collaborators.

Friendly and unassuming, Ben likes to joke that he pursued abstract art because he was terrible at drawing. He was born in Pasadena, Texas and his family relocated to Tallahassee, Florida, where he lived what he considers to have been an ordinary childhood. Art was always within reach, however. His family encouraged his creative pursuits from an early age, and attending 1990s raves exposed him to a crossfire of profound, new ideas.

Ben suffers from a form of synesthesia called chromesthesia — or benefits from it, one might argue. Hearing music, especially with lyrics, causes distinct colors and shapes to form in his mind’s eye. Ben’s body of work started out modestly enough; it served as an ongoing journal that he would bury in the vibrant hues evoked by listening to electronic music. It would soon become much more, and organically, at that.

One of Ben’s favorite gestures was to hand paint unique wrapping paper when giving gifts to his friends. One of them kept a few years’ worth of these coverings, and his interior designer eventually discovered them. The designer got ahold of Ben and proposed that they collaborate on a canvas painting. It gave him the confidence to pursue art in a professional capacity.

Ben first showed his art in coffee shops and the like, earning his first big opportunities starting in 2004. His paintings hung in an exhibition at Off Broadway Drafthouse in Madison, Wisconsin before appearing in galleries at Overture Center, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, and Michael Murphy Gallery. In 2006, he introduced a series called “The Swirls” at Red Stripe Gallery that remains a beloved signature of his to this day.

To that, Ben credits a happy accident that ended up adding a rich, new dimension to his craft. He slipped up and told an interviewer about the words he wrote on the canvas of each painting, meaning that the most personal aspect of his art was no longer a secret. Then, in 2010, a client asked if they could bury words of their own in one of his paintings.

While hesitant at first, Ben acquiesced. What he didn’t expect was the joy he would find in sharing his unique style of art therapy with others, helping them process their own trauma, and memorializing their self-care in a meaningful way. He dedicated his “The Swirls” series to similar collaborations from then on; the rest of his paintings still serve as his own private journal.

Ben has heard time and time again that he provides a safe space for the people lucky enough to get swept up in his vibrant world of sensory expression. He never tires of hearing it. Each connection inspires him to bare more of who he is, and in turn, it furthers his own self-discovery. What he does runs deeper than splashes of paint on a canvas. It nonetheless reflects loudly and clearly in each and every one of his works.

Three decades later, Ben Brummerhop still approaches art with the malleable mind of a beginner. He likely always will. As he grows and evolves, so too does his body of work convey a sense of forward momentum from one purposeful brushstroke to the next.