STANLEY BELL ARTIST
Look deep through the layers of life that an artist like Stanley Bell carefully brings to the surface of concourses. Stanley sorts chaos, time after time and time again. Much like shuffling an old deck, before laying cards out face up for a new reading. Sometimes, the strata gets compressed to a thin film of existence. Who among us has the courage to examine the new vision, showing itself for the world to look and see with life focused intensity?
The search for self is hard on the body and soul, it is not easy to go back and open doors that have been closed for years. To look for signs, to look for clues that show themselves through the haze of wonder that makes static turn to patterns and listen and hear the sounds of your own. Being is a personal reward, a gift from one’s self to one’s self. Great art springs from the very core of the search for self. I have watched this artist ricocheting through the mental canyons of life and with each glancing blow he picked up residue from personal moments.
Stanley did not have to make it his own, it was his own. He laid it all out for the world to see. With each work of art, one by one, strung together like the golden thread, showing the way back from the recessed caverns below the mind’s eye. Much has been said about the healing force of art, the visualizing of the compressed reality that spherical time holds in its center, then returning with the proof being shown in tangible form.
Stanley’s work is proof of a deeply personal journey into the human experience. Look close and breathe deep the subject at hand. It’s said that if you want understanding, you must seek it and practice the art of conjuring content and meaning from each work of art with singular intent to understand it.
It is my hope that understanding will come through looking and seeing, listening to the internal voice of the art and hearing what it tells you. Stanley has given much, he is handing you the lock and key, holding your own personal basis of understanding. look close, for this art will show you a truth. Stanley Bell has earned the status of master in the old fashioned way, he worked for it. Now he is giving his art to you.”
-James Surls, 2022