Dell Belew
Returning artist Dell Belew stated this about her upcoming show: "This year, 2024, marks 49 years since I began my art journey. For most of those early years, I was reveling in my newest accomplishments in oil painting on canvas. Until I started taking classes at Armstrong toward a degree in art, I did not want anyone to mess with my “style.” That entire attitude changed due to a professor who pushed me to work with a wide variety of styles and materials—still with my own flare. In the process, my fascination and passion for all media, genre, and styles grew. By the time I graduated in 1985, I was possessed by whatever I was doing at the time.
That has not changed. The internet exposes us to zillions of possibilities to use and manipulate the endless materials at our reach. Although I have exhibited various styles in past shows, referring to myself as the chameleon, this year I am exhibiting only the newest of my works that are primarily abstract.
Every time a paint-loaded brush or other marking instruments touches a surface, a new and original work emerges. Although many people do not like abstract painting, the paintings do have a message/a life; it is usually a message unspoken to the artist at its inception. I randomly apply paint or whatever substance I have chosen, and I keep moving paint around until it tells me what it is. A fundamental example is my painting in this year’s exhibit titled The Organ Recital. I hung the 4’x 5’ painting on a wall in my living room to complete it. Even though I liked the colors, I could not be satisfied with the final result—that is, until the day it introduced itself to me. I had worked on it during the 2 weeks prior to impending cancer surgery. My spirit, as it turns out, had been painting my subconscious thoughts about the upcoming invasion of my body by surgeons who would be removing the cancer. My spirit was looking into the beauty of the human body and marveling at the fact that even though our bodies are invaded, the body has an awesome recuperative quality because it is 'fearfully and wonderfully made'
(Psalms 139)."