Kari Bell

Part dream, part reality and part memory, I paint what I feel about what I see. I use oils and cold wax medium to create abstract paintings that reflect both my understanding and experience of living in the southwest. My process is like a superhighway with ideas flowing all the time until an exit says “get off”. This germination of ideas is ongoing, but I always sense when one is coming to fruition. For me, nothing is off limits; what I see is my truth. Helen Frankenthaler said, “In art, rules are meant to be broken.” I like to take it a step further. Breaking or bending the rules releases my creativity. Painting is the most challenging thing I’ve ever done and it is, as well, the most peaceful. I am alternately fascinated, inspired, challenged by what I feel living in the Southwest. Trained early as a sociologist, my reactions to living in the desert, southwest history and geography as well as many socio-cultural concerns flow into my work. Specifically with regard to the subject of ‘roots’, my artistic goal is to capture the feel of the land, history and culture of the Southwest in abstraction, particularly the lives and history of the Indigenous peoples, their history, yes but more importantly, their story. The lives of the ancestral Puebloans permeates my work and carries me to a place of deeper understanding.