THE ARTIST
Gary bell
After the words for poetry stopped coming to me, I really needed a new creative outlet for all my anxiety and passion. I was encouraged to paint. I’d tried years before, but since I couldn’t do realism, I was convinced I wasn’t an artist. However, in 2014 my counselor encouraged to try painting again and I laughed. Then he said the thing that shifted my life, “What if it doesn’t have to be anything or look a certain way. What if you just play with some color on a canvas?” My response was, “Well, that’s not so scary.” By simply playing with paint and not viewing it as work, I paint without criticism, judgment, or expectations of perfectionism. The result is my bold, heavily textured, acrylic artplay.
I live in San Diego, California and spend part-time in Palm Springs.