Thomas Bell

Thomas was born in Asheville, North Carolina and became interested in abstract art in 2004 when a teacher gave him an assignment to create a painting influenced by a famous artist. He chose Piet Mondrian and painted a canvas with different shapes and primary colors similar to that of the Dutch painter. The freedom he found within the simplicity of his style became an invitation for him to enter a complex world with infinite dimensions and areas of opportunity open for his honest exploration. That day of artistic realization led him to a place of creative authority, freedom and further detachment from societal programming in which escaping aspects of the modern domestication of man has been an interest of Thomas since a teenager. Abiding by intuition Thomas has strayed away from further classical training after 9th grade art class in fears he would lose the core authenticity of what he valued most in painting, which is…. Undomesticated freedom within a mind of pure action flowing with the parameters of what his ability allows.

Thomas’s early paintings featured elementary faces expressing both tension and abandonment felt from the detachment of understanding that close ones had to him as he became involved in expressing himself through his artistic calling.  Beyond the figurative aspect of his creations, he became very involved in paint experimentation on all different mediums including various of types of fabrics. Figuring out how large amounts of paint flow and work together when combined with many techniques, Thomas learned how to form aesthetically pleasing and balanced work out of a seemingly random but very calculated processes. Creating from a reality that can seem like total discombobulation, he transforms his materials into works of deliberate organized chaos with a sense of balance and flow that stems from being balanced and in flow with the experience. While the style of his early work departed from the traditional norms he was raised within – so much so that his paintings elicited fear inside of others –  he refused to abandon his abstract nature and drive to create.

Finding acceptance from the universe within the worlds of his paintings his work became more than a hobby, job or well-connected interest. Painting became a source of life created through the abandonment of all the variables within the perceived norms or rules in which a human should perform while being creative. Allowing the conditioned self to escape into pure form of soul and experience where the root of source expands into his artwork.

Forces attempting to push Thomas to conform to a more conventional way continue to intervene. When intuition calls and one extracts himself from the game forced upon us, one creates realms that do not intervene with any constrictive norms of society and delves into pathways elsewhere.

Constantly innovating and finding the limits of his depths, through the ups and downs of uncertainty, Thomas has grown more strength and bravery to go further into the surface of the unknown.