Introspection • self portrait, mixed media 2020
Words from her Father: Bella’s world was one filled with art, and this self portrait brings a new element into play. This self portrait was completed in April 2020, three months before she left us. She often drew her personas (she called them ‘sonas), dragon girl, box girl and void (all described best in her words for her 2018 work “Happiness”.) but this piece had a new element into play, the little green alien creature. When presented with this I asked her about him and she proudly said “Dad, that’s Invader Boo. I’ve had my three other personas for years and they are basically negative. I figured it’s time for a positive one. Boo is showing me that there’s many possibilities and good things in the world for me as well.”
There are two of each “Sona” in this work and I love that one “Boo” is pulling her dragonsona away from her ear on the left while, on the right, another “Boo” whispers into her ear he is opening a new universe for her, which is the green field of stars and roses that she is looking into.
BellaBoo (generally shortened to Boo) was my nickname for my daughter.
Happiness • gouache on bristol 2018
In Bella’s own words: So here’s my final for art. The assignment was happiness/what is your happiness and I guess I decided to take a bit of a different approach. I have 3 personal designs I use sometimes to represent parts of myself or how I’m feeling or just in general. I’ve posted them all here before.
The dragon girl hosts arrogance, anger and stubbornness. The void creature embodies paranoia/anxiety, mental illness and fear, definitely a background influencer. The box girl gets all the other emotions but usually sadness/insecurity/apathy among other things and was actually created during and art block so can also be interpreted as feeling “blocked in”.
I feel like my happiness would be to leave these behind somehow. I won’t be able to achieve anything if I have these holding me back. So basically I beat them up and left them in a ditch that I’m struggling to pull myself out of so I can be free and find happiness.