We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Katrina Bello a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Katrina, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

The story behind my studio practice is my personal story of immigrating to a new country and what this experience if migration has inspired in me when it comes to family, memories of land, environment, and our complex relationship to the natural world.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Originally from the Philippines, I’m a visual artist who primarily works in drawing and video. The themes of my work are landscape and memory, and what inspires my art are my experience of immigrating to the United States, the complexity that this created with my family dynamic, the beauty of the landscapes I encountered in my adopted country, and issues related to land and environment. How I got into the arts started when I was as young as six years old when my creative abilities were starting to emerge. Growing up in a coastal environment in the southern island in the Philippines was very rich in inspiration for a young artist, my childhood saw me making my own charcoal drawing tools out of charred wood and coconut husks that was used for cooking in our outdoor kitchen. Eventually I went to art school in the University of the Philippines where I studied 2 years of drawing. My studies were interrupted when I immigrated to the United States, and I did not draw again for almost a decade. But despite not drawing, the experience of immigrating was intensely formative to my art, and it opened up to me a new world of art possibilities that are about land, geology, issues about climate change, and more. But at the same time the experience of immigrating also resulted in complex personal issues such as family separations and nostalgia. And so memories of place became a significant part of my art. Eventually I was able to complete my art studies, and 2013 attained my MFA in Studio Art at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD. It was during my graduate studies that I revisited and rediscovered drawing again, and it has become my brand and signature as a visual artist. I am proud to say that since 2013, I have exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in museums, universities, and galleries in the United States and the Philippines, and have been awarded fellowships and residencies in the United States.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Before I became a full-time artist, I had worked as a magazine photo editor, and only worked on my art part-time for almost 14 years. While I was a photo editor, the thought of becoming an artist full-time was a notion that I didn’t think can be achieved. But events happening in the country then assisted in making this notion into a reality: the recent recession that caused so many companies and industries to shut down or do massive employee layoffs. Being unemployed left me financially insecure, but at the same time, it also freed up some time where I can re-examine my career as a photo editor and my art career. It was my opportunity to finally make the big jump – that dramatic change of career. And so immediately after being laid off from my magazine job, I embarked on an intense studio schedule to make a series of large scale drawings. After about 5 years of hard work in the studio, my art career was launched with my first solo exhibition in a small museum.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

A great book that I highly recommend when it comes to the power of creativity, and reasons for pursuing it, is “Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear” by Elizabeth Gilbert. Another significant one that is about having a supportive creative community is “Living And Sustaining a Creative Life” by Sharon Louden.    

Contact Info:

• Website: https://katrinabello.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kimbells2037/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kbellostudio
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katrina-bello-ba837a28/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/katrinabello1

Image Credits
Portrait (courtesy of the subject) 2 Photos of the artist working in the studio (courtesy of the subject) Gallery photo with bench (courtesy of the subject) Gallery photo with art on the floor (courtesy of MO-Space Gallery)