Mickie Bellah Art

This is not a very well kept secret, but Yanni is one of my favorite musicians. I think his music is very inspiring, uplifting and certainly explodes with energy. He has adjusted his path somewhat and has added four of the most incredible voices I’ve ever heard. Bright, young, dynamic performers who are currently touring with Yanni. Lyrics have been added to his instrumentals and these voices just bring the music totally alive.

The beautiful lady in the photos is Alfreda Gerald, formerly the lead vocalist with Yanni. It was taken at a ‘fan’ party in Las Vegas in 2006 prior to the kick-off performance of Yanni’s tour, “Yanni Live”. Alfreda is a very kind, gentle, beautiful, gracious lady. She spent a lot of time visiting with us and answering questions. When the picture was taken I was thanking Alfreda for sharing her incredible talent with the world … and not about to bite her ear! I swear!

This was my first trip to Las Vegas, with good friends, who gave me the full tour of the city prior to the Concert. I’ll be going back for the Grand Opening of Arleccina Gallery on South Las Vegas Boulevard who graciously sells my work along with 19 other incredible artists.

Enough about my checkered past, and colorful life now.

Looking back I often wondered if I could paint pictures. The thought was pretty well buried deep inside. I knew I wanted to do something different than anyone else in my family. I’ll tell you, thought, my heart pounded, either in fear or total excitement, the first time I held a brush in my hand. Its an understatement to say my eyes looked like a deer caught in the headlights! My mind raced with the usual ‘I can’ts…’, ‘I don’t knows…’, and ‘I’ll be terribles…’. In time I learned those ‘mistakes’ are wondermous! Being persistent and hard-headed, I kept at it. The more I painted, and the more ‘mistakes’ I made, the more I wanted to continue to learn, and somehow, someway, someday, develop my own style. I was very fortunate to study with several successful local artists including world-renowned colorist Gustav Likan, who has since passed. By 1982 I had completed the Famous Artists correspondence course. However, in 1983 my artistic creativity came to a halt when I started my marketing and advertising agency. However, after serving others for 20 years I decided it was time to serve my Self, so dusted off the easel and began opening tubes of paint. Ahhh, the smell of turpentine … I was ‘home.’

This time around I wanted to create bold, powerful, colorful canvases that involved people’s imagination. Learning techniques for palette knife was the plan but that fizzled when, by ‘accident’ I thinned the paint and randomly spread it on the canvas. I could tilt the canvas and watch the colors mix themselves. All of a sudden incredible images started to appear! Wow! Somebody else was creating this and that’s when I called for my guides. They showed up, smiling, and we painted another canvas, and another, and another, and another.

Once a painting is finished I see that the painting wasn’t ‘finished’; the Spiritual realm continued to move the paint to be sure that all of the ‘information’ they want included is there.

Images show up in the paintings that I didn’t paint! I choose not to highlight them because if a person doesn’t see what I see they will stop looking. It is important for them to find what is there because the images could have significant meaning. The energy of the colors sets off a tone and when they begin to see the ‘hidden’ images, their vibration increases and they connect.

I’ve been a fan of and interested in Astrology for some time. I made an attempt to learn Astrology, but we didn’t click. But, I was then led to paint astrology birth charts in the same Surralistic Abstract style. Each person’s chart is plotted based on the date, time and geographic location of birth, Just like fingerprints, there are no two identical charts in the world. Dominant colors are based on the position of their Sun, Moon and Rising signs in the Zodiac; secondary colors represent the next group of planets; the smallest dabs of colors are of the remaining planets. As with my other paintings, the design is totally guided.

I had another ‘accident’ in the studio a few years ago which birthed my Luminescence Series. Still using the thinned paint, some of the images in these paintings are more obvious, and some are not. Your imagination still gets to play and, the more you look, the more you will see.

An art critic said this about my work: ‘Ms. Bellah combines rich, powerful hues to create intensely personal and potent abstract artworks. Her patterns of art are complex and thorough, but also present an immediate arresting presentation to viewers. One of Ms. Bellah’s most notable elements is the way she links dark and light tones, so that small bursts of color fit splendidly into arranged darker sections. The expressionistic nature of her paintings is both darning and meditative, filling a dramatic range within the same image. The paintings are poetic and majestic while still offering an open door to interpretation due to their abstract nature.

“Ms. Bellah’s bold paintings carry a consistent spirit and employ variation on the brilliant coloration. A viewer sees one work and carries the particular intensity of that painting over to the next. When Ms. Bellah’s paintings are seen in succession they have even more potency, because the strength of each painting is multiplied. The buoyant colors unfold across the canvas in a kaleidoscope of color, creating interwoven, encrusted patterns. These combinations create a visual dance for the viewer.’

And … no one is more amazed than me!