Martin Benton Is Featured Artist
Martin Benton will be the featured artist during the Second Annual International Market planned for Saturday and Sunday, October 4-5 at the Monticello Presbyterian Church.
The International Market is an event that was created to aid in raising funds to benefit the ML & J Fund which assists local youth.
Established in 2004 in honor of the retirement of Mary Lou and Jimmy Jordan from the Jasper County School System, the program is now a designated outreach ministry of the Monticello Presbyterian Church referred to as “Show Mercy, with Love, and receive Joy Fund.”
The program helps provide back to school needs in July and August and coordinates with Dept. of Family and Children Services each Christmas to supply clothes, toys, and gifts.
Mr. Benton, affectionately known as Marty, is a Monticello native who aspired beyond the limitations that cerebral palsy could have placed on his life. One of three children born to Evelyn and the late J.C. Benton of Monticello, Martin grew up on Hillsboro Street along with siblings, Jan and Steve.
Young Marty was diagnosed with cerebral palsy as a youth. Cerebral palsy is a disorder of movement, muscle tone or posture caused by an insult to the immature, developing brain.
Although he walked slower, spoke less clearly, and couldn’t write as well as his school counterparts nothing phased a determined Marty.
“Our parents raised us to treat him like anyone else,” said his sister Jan. “We were not allowed to do certain things for him just because he had a disability. They didn’t want him becoming dependent on anyone.”
Sister Jan found her parent’s task hard at times but began to see the benefits as brother Marty got older. She remembered him having a little wagon that he would pull everywhere. In that wagon was a typewriter that he learned to use quite well because it became his primary way of communicating.
Perseverance is the adjective that comes to mind when describing the likes of Martin Benton.
He graduated from Monticello High School in 1966. Afterwards it was on to college earning a B.A. in History and Political Science. In 1972, he earned a law degree from the University of Georgia.
Sister Jan remembers Martin being on a fierce manhunt for a job after earning his law degree making call after call. His persistence paid off and before long Martin was packing his bags at Hillsboro Street and heading for Washington, D.C. to take a job with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
As a child with cerebral palsy who had become an adult, Martin had done exceedingly well at managing and navigating his life but his sister remembers having some reservations about him moving to D.C. alone.
Her worries proved to be not founded. Martin eventually took a job with the Dept. of Education from which he retired in 2007 after 22 years of service. He met and married his wife, Jen, in 1981 and they have two children, Sarah and Matthew. Now in retirement, he spends much of his time honing his pottery skills when not traveling the country with his wife.
Martin remembers discovering pottery in the late 1970s and loving it. He noted that he has been studying pottery under Washington D.C. artist Jill Hinckley; she has pieces housed in the Smithsonian Institution.
“I like the feel of the pottery as I’m molding it,” said Martin. “Using the wheel is hard work, it takes focus,” he said of his hobby.
Focus is something that Martin certainly does not lack. He’s been focused his entire life on achieving his personal goals one by one, pottery will be no different.
Of course, Martin and his pottery won’t be the only artwork featured at the market next month. There will be art and many types of items featured courtesy of Ten Thousand Villages which will include handcrafted art pieces from around the world such as handwoven baskets from Bangladesh.
Also featured at the market will be sewing creations by the Presbyterian women, homemade baked goods, and other refreshments. Beth Whitmire is helping coordinate the market days.
