An Interview with Artist John Bell
Symbolic, catastrophic, nostalgic, progressive; the oeuvre of John Bell offers the viewer a rare glimpse into the hypnotic realness and chaos which layer the human psyche. "I’m a huge fan of art," Bell explains, "and I have learned to give myself over to the possibilities it presents; I end up absorbing something from every experience". In a recent interview I conducted with the emerging artist, Bell delves into the depths of Anthropological postmodernism, day dreaming and the driving forces behind his work.
Q: do you recall the moment you wanted to become an artist?
JB : Not at all, I never had that moment. I’ve never thought of myself as anything other than an artist, I was born into it. The only time I have ever experienced a moment like that it was in the reverse, which was the realization that I could choose to be something else… but at that point it was a bit moot.
Q: What is your [personal] definition of an artist?
JB : Hyper aware acutely sensitive observationalist (I’m not sure if that’s a word, but it should be) social satirist, dreamer, aesthetic whore, obsessive compulsive, driven to find out what else… what if? Puzzle maker, problem solver, troublemaker, warning flag waving introverted irreverent exhibitionist… a divergent soul.
Q: What are some driving forces that heavily influence your work?
JB: Just being awake and in the world. Music, living, loving, hating, reading, driving, fucking, fighting, working, travel, playing, listening, talking with people, experiencing the culture at large… everything has the potential to set a fire in my mind that eventually finds its way into the work. Art is the medium through which I view everything.
Q: You graduated from the Art Institute in Pittsburg, 87’, was there something that you learnt there that has stuck with you throughout the duration of your career?
JB: Yes, I have a degree in Visual Communication form AIP, which is a hybrid of graphic design, photography, art history, color theory, drawing etc… so it more or less shaped the divergent nature of my artistic evolution. The program there was very good and I had some fantastic teachers, people who profoundly shaped my artistic identity; Angelo Ciotti was a magical thinker and major influence, as were Flavia Zortea and Rita O’Brien. Like anything, you get out of an endeavor what your willing to put into it, and I reveled in it.
Q: Find your own voice is important as an artist – do you believe you have found your own voice?
JB: Yes. I’m confident in the work I create, and the “voice” I have found is one of rapid change and evolution. I try to make my thinking and my art as divergent as the culture itself… which is impossible, but it’s an interesting and challenging path to head down.
Q: You have previously mentioned that you have resided on the notion of creating your own genre and title – may you elaborate on this? How would you describe your work with concerns to your genre?
JB: I like to refer to what I do as Anthropological post modernism. Exploring multiple movements in contemporary art while digging through mass culture, identity, media influence, science, the impact of social media, appropriation, the vanishing public domain and the ever-fluctuating values of contemporary culture. I am interested in process as much as style. Painting, print making, photography, sculpture, writing, installation and performance art have all found their way into my work.
Many of the paintings, prints and sculptures comment on times we live in. Taking aim at sociopolitical issues, religion, moral and economic melt down as well as the blurred line between real and virtual life fuelled by obsessions with status, fame, manufactured celebrity and ambitions that have gone supernova.
My performances blur the line between viewer, art and experience, intentionally involving viewers in the work from “the seven deadly commonalities” to the live shadow paintings or having their unwitting participation in situation / installations like “interloper(s)” their reactions to the work become the subject and the art.
Whatever the medium, all of my work is an inquiry into and an attempt to understand the complexities of contemporary culture. The notion of creating my own genera was an idea that gave me motivation and a goal. It was the catalyst that led me to the thinking and process just described, which is right where I want to be, but it is no longer is the goal.
Q: I read that you shed the layers of your current house to expose the beauty of the design, a contrast to the layers that are inherent in your work – how do you perceive the idea of layers?
JB: Life is endless layers and we all need a respite from that. I feel that is something great architecture and design are capable of. So the layers or years of architectural abortions that had been committed to the house I restored had to go to bring it back into that space. Great art is a reflection of the times an artist lives in so my process is a product of the times. It’s a cross pollinated, hybrid, heavily layered, mashed up culture we live in these days. The best of what I do holds a mirror up to that culture; so to me it always made perfect sense to adopt that ethos in my art.
Q: Can you talk about an experience that makes you laugh uncontrollably or something you look back on in great ‘fondness”?
JB: Going to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa. I know, right? But stay with me, it was not about seeing the painting itself (I never got within 100 feet of it) but witnessing the throngs of people just gawking at it. There were several thousand people in that gallery all day long, being herded like cattle for just a glimpse. The magnetism it possessed was staggering, but the whole time all I could think is that may very well be a picture of da Vinci in drag (based on a show I had seen on the history channel sometime ago). I was the only one in the room laughing.
Q: How do you dream? Do you dream in color? Are your dreams graphic? If you do dream, do you also day dream?
JB: Both vivid colors and black and white… sometime I can physically feel dreams, sex, fear, anger, killing or being killed, being under water or flying. I have finished works of art in dreams, continuing the thinking from the day into a dream. Strange dreams that blur the people & times of my life across decades. I gave birth in a dream once… the kid stood up, started talking rapidly and took off on foot making quantum leaps through time and places. What he had to say seemed very urgent but I could never really keep up long enough to figure out what he wanted to tell me. He moved from city to city, country to country in an instant, growing and morphing constantly, it was fascinating. Yes, always have been and am still a daydreamer. I have all of my report cards in a box somewhere from 1st to 8th grade, and every one of them comments on the issue of my chronic daydreaming.
Q: Do you have any comments or advice for those who are creatively inclined? Any words of wisdom, especially for those still finding their feet?
JB: Fear, self doubt and failure are as useful of tools as confidence, arrogance or success. Don’t make excuses, make art.
