Gloria Bell: Dia De Los Muertos Artist with local roots

Excerpt from a feature story on Gloria Bell and her paintings focusing on Day of the Dead.
featured in Globe Miami Times Fall 2008. Gloria will be staging a one woman show at the Center for the Arts this coming Fall : September 1st – October 31. See www.cvarts.org or more information)

By: Linda Gross

Standing in the doorway of their little home on Chisolm Street, Gloria Bell ushers me into her living room which is undergoing a form of benign/organic remodeling. She and her husband, Bill, purchased the home in 2004, as a second “space” to both hang their collection of overflow art and book collection, and breathe in the community of their great grandparents who worked and raised families in the area.
Although both were born and raised in California, they are third generation Miami children; Bill’s mother went to school here, and his grandfather on that side worked for the local fire department.

His grandfather, Jim Bell, was a fiddle player of note (as is Bill), and played at Bullion Plaza on Friday nights for the dances. Gloria’s grandfather and great grandfather – both Apodach’s- worked the mines in Morenci, Miami and Superior, and raised families here.

And so it is, that his talented couple – she an artist, he a musician-first met in California and discovered their shared family history in a little mining town just east of Phoenix.
It was this connection with Miami which sparked the first conversation. “In fact, one of our first trips, after getting married,” says Gloria, was to Miami to visit the places our grandparents had told us about.

Their little “house” in Miami was an old Miner’s Hotel at one point with no stairway connecting the lower and upper floors. The Hotel had no plumbing. Showers were outside. And miners came and went by the back stairs. The place is steeped in local history. It just no heating and cooling. Still, Gloria and Bill, smile when they talk about the place and obviously consider it a home-away-from-home.It has everything they need. Wall space for artwork. And storage space for boxes of things they have yet to find a place for. Not to forget… a 2nd floor porch with two rocking chairs to catch the evening breezes that occasionally waft through the canyon.

“We actually bought it for the space,” says Bill. Pointing to the walls, stripped of old wallboard and standing bare with just plaster and lathe. Art is hanging from every corner and every hallway. “We love buying art…even when we really couldn’t afford it, we would find money for a piece of art.” Gloria goes on to explain, “We love to buy others art. In fact when we first came up here, we purchased one of Diana Tunis’s pieces. Wonderful piece.”

She grew up in east LA surrounded by a culture which celebrates the dead, and throws parties for the spirits of those have passed to the other side. It was the art, the passion, and the people which came alive during the celebrations of Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) which fueled her imagination as a child, and passion as an artist . Today, Gloria Bell honors the ancient tradition of culture and family, in her rich paintings depicting the Day of the Dead.

It is said, the origins of Dia de los Muertos, go back thousands of years to a ritual once celebrated by the Celtics in Europe as part of their fire celebrations. It was believed that during this season the normal order of the universe is suspended. The barriers between the natural and the supernatural are temporarily removed. This is believed to result in the portal- through which we pass on during death- lying open. Thus, the  spirits of the dead move freely among the living. It is this connection to the spirits of those who have passed on before us – not the separation – which brings a festive mood to the celebration, rather than a somber note.

The Celts ancient tradition was later commandeered by the Romans, the Spaniards and the Catholic Church – each applying their own take on the ritual. The Catholic Church, in a common practice known to history, moved to replace pagan practices with “church-sanctioned” holidays. They first established an All Saints Day (November 1) and later an All Souls Day (November 2) to honor Saints, Martyrs and dearly departed.

Bell’s artwork consists mostly of skeletons we want to hug, and colors which vibrate with warmth and vibrancy. Her figures each have expressions which make us smile. “Even if they don’t have flesh, and creases around the eyes, they are all different. They have personality. Like her most popular piece showing a fetching skelton couple with the note: “I would kiss you, if I only had lips.”

Her work has been accepted into the Tucson Museum of Art and the Heard Museum as well as the Latin American Museum of Art in LA. Gloria says“It was an honor for me to get accepted into these places and find myself placed next to Diego Rivera.” She says.
She and husband Bill, designed and produced a Day of the Dead calendar which featured famous dead people like Marilyn Monroe, George Harrison and Roy Rodgers. (and a friend or two) “We thought people could start out a month and say – listen to Harrison’s music, or watch re-runs of  Roy Rodgers movies.” It is a way of paying homage to life. Not a bad tradition.

Gloria adds, “Most people don’t understand the culture’s celebration of the dead, but once they do, people develop a taste for it. The art is growing as more people are being exposed to the meaning behind the celebration.”

PS: We featured her husband, Bill Bell, and his latest CD in a post earlier this year.

.