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

Leonardo, appreciate you joining us today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

Art for me is like breathing, or walking. I didn’t choose to be an artist, I was just born one. Sometimes being a full time artist comes with a lot of financial uncertainty, so I do have a “regular” job making picture frames at The Color House here in Miami. My day job is where I developed my taste and style, and it continues to be very formative and very rewarding, you could say my work was my school, in addition to being surrounded by art, being a framer has opened the art world for me and showed me its inner workings, have met an amazing array of people and get to see trends in real time . My regular job is instrumental in my artistic expression.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am Leonardo Bello, I was born in Caracas, Venezuela and moved to Miami as a teenager. I come from an artistic family and was artistically inclined since very young. This vocation led me to become a Picture framer and subsequently to find an artistic outlet.
I find inspiration in everyday day beauty, and look to glorify the street and the mundane, I look for elements that span across time and spaces and social classes, things that are in everybody’s life, like music, and animals.
Overlaying images is my medium, similar to double exposure in photography, it makes the picture fictional but tangible, like a dream. My work calls for music and movement, it calls for a story that I hope the viewer will make up in their minds with the elements provided.
I want to give the viewer an unfinished story that happens to decorate the wall, with colors, movement and balance.
I want to create a market for art collectors that care about the present and the future. I want to create moods and decorate the world one wall at a time.
The work is a product of my very own vision and inspiration, and although every artist has influences my work is completely original and genuine.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

One aspect that drives my work is the absence to similar work, honestly, I was and continue to be surprised that not many other artists use the overlay medium, I thought that by this time and age there would be more art in that style. I still have a hard time thinking no one else had thought of it before me. The second driver and I think I share this with many other artists and craft people is the need for an outlet to the ideas that come naturally to me, images and moods, stories and feelings that I find to be my duty to share it with the world. I would be selfish other wise.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

I believe NFTs provide artists with a decentralized and unbiased market place, representing a new opportunity for artists to project themselves and their work to this ever changing world. All outlets for the arts are welcomed, specially for artists that wouldn’t have such a global exposure otherwise.

Contact Info:

• Website: leonardobello.com
• Instagram: @leobello
• Other: Come see me at The Color House

Image Credits
Photo credit: Esdras T. Thelusma