Kari Bell was born and raised in the North East US. She holds a BA, MA and a PHD and this education was the basis of a 30 year career in Higher Education. Kari lived overseas for numbers of years and travelled extensively when women did not. Art was a regular activity in her life but there was nothing to suggest Kari would pursue this as a second career.Kari’s interests include hiking, film, reading and traveling with an emphasis on art and jazz. Her most recent experience was to cross the mighty Drake Passage to Antarctica followed by time in Buenos Aires and Mendoza.Artistic influences are many but begin with Sorolla, Diebenkorn, De Stael, Frankenthaler, Nieto and Mandelman. Kari and her wife Sandy live and thrive in New Mexico.
Statement
I paint what I feel about what I see. This is the essence of the abstract art I create with oil and cold wax medium. Creating abstract works with lots of texture (either visual or tactile) is possible because the multiple layers of the art in progress can be stamped, gouged, pressed, stained, scraped and generally ‘molded’ to the desired forms and textures.Helen Frankenthaler said that rules in art are meant to be broken. For me, pushing the boundaries encourages innovation, imagination and a different level of creativity. I revel in an unexpected combination of line, texture and/or color, the juxtaposition unimagined, the unforeseen result.My work is part reality, part dream, part memory-I hope it evokes some of that for you.