We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful TESSA BELL. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with TESSA below.

Alright, TESSA thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I wrote my first play when I was seven. I had ulterior motives. My young heart was in love with a boy from school. I knew if I wrote a play in which I ran away with him, he would be mine in real life as well. The play was a success both commercially – all the parents bought tickets and the production costs were free, and personally – I got to kiss my love and we became known as the Richard Burton/Elizabeth Taylor of the younger set. After that, seriously, what other career would I have chosen?

TESSA, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My parents were both artists at heart, but being children of the Depression, they had to create stability. My father had a beautiful tenor voice and my mother was both a lovely singer and a talented actress. They encouraged all their children to feed the beast of Art. I never really thought of anything else. As long as it was creative, I was interested. Writing, singing, acting, directing, editing.
As a teenager, I acted and sang in theatres in Washington DC. Once I was in college, I ran around with the film boys, who enjoyed putting my face on film. When I graduated and needed to make a living, I turned to journalism, which is not art but at least there were cameras and content to be created, with a paycheck attached.

The road since then has been a series of pivots, years of creating a family while producing corporate videos and writing screenplays no one has ever read… years singing in cabaret houses in NY, slowly learning yet another artform that did not pay the bills… years producing indie films and public service announcements while paying the bills by working for a commercially successful playwright. The trick has been throughout keeping my head screwed on, not comparing my art to anyone else’s success, and daily offering of my soul to some larger force from when my creativity stems. A living altar to Art.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

Truly the economic system we work within is not supportive of a thriving creative ecosystem and with the frenzied introduction of AI which does not compensate original artists, it is less and less likely that artists will be able to feed and house themselves. This will have serious implications for our culture and our body politic. In order for artists to survive, there has to be a source of income that is not attached to the limited market of art as a commodity. We as a people suffer when voices are silenced because they don’t appeal to the masses. We become stupid. Life is not Marvel Comics. The tragedy is that we do not have a government that supports the arts, and an educational system that does not cultivate the arts.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

People often think artists are self-indulgent and lazy, that they provide little value to society and should just go get a job, a real job, like Uber! Please. In order to create a show or a movie I work for months and months, years and years, putting all my time and talent on the table. Without the process of art, we cannot see ourselves in context. Just look at civilization during the Dark Ages. No art was created. Nothing but war, famine, rape and pillage. We should not take art for granted.

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Contact Info:

• Website: tessabell.com
• Instagram: tessabainbell
• Facebook: Tessabell
• Linkedin: Tessa Bell