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

Rachel, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

I’m working on a very meaningful collection this year. It took me a while, but I have finally developed my style with painting and I’m able to translate my messages onto a canvas through the pieces I am creating. The pieces I’m working on each have their own message and meaning from love to loss, At the end of the year I will have 12 and people can see them all together,I want them to really touch people and have people be able to relate and understand them in their own way.

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 think the most important part of all of this is that this is all in existence because of mother, she was an artist, her whole life, she was my teacher, my best friend, and my love Line. She influenced my life with art in every way possible, and I didn’t realize how much of an impact that had on me until she passed. It took me a while, but I always knew that I had to dive into art, and use what she gave me, I can’t express how happy I am that I did and how close I feel to her when I’m exercising this part of me.

I chose the name Inbloom because Bloom was her maiden name, and I believe that, as people we should always think of ourselves as in bloom, we should always be blooming throughout every season, regardless of how hard that seems.

I started painting at the end of 2021, just experimenting and figuring out how to go about it. Luckily the same year I was connected to Rich, the owner of Riches Art gallery and I was inspired beyond words. I did my first art show at his gallery at the end of 2021 and sold my first piece, I knew I was exactly where I was suppose to be and ran with it.
2022 I spent taking on commissions, doing every art show, could, and painting a lot of anime characters.
I was having fun, but I felt like I was doing myself an injustice by not bringing my message across.

At the end of last year, everything just clicked. I knew two things, that I had to express all of these messages I have inside of me onto canvases, and that I wanted to put my art not only on those canvases but on people as well (tattooing). Some thing about being able to give someone a piece of art that they get to wear on themselves forever just fills my soul.

I decided to take this year off from commissions and art shows and really focus on the message. I’m trying to bring across as well as learn to tattoo.

I hope to one day specialize in tattooing the same style as my paintings which are statuesque like. There’s some thing about the style that speaks to me and seems so concrete with the expression and meaning that show through the sculptures.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My first mission is to lead with love and spread love. It’s so important and the world needs it so badly, I feel like I have so much love inside of me, and it makes me so happy to leave others with that a hug, a deep convo, a compliment, anything that leaves someone feeling better than they felt before.

My second mission is to inspire. It’s so important to me to help people see that they can do absolutely anything they want to do, There’s no boundaries, no rules, and no outside things that can stop what’s in your soul. If you have any kind of gift, passion, talent, it’s so important to exercise and use those, we were all brought to this place for a reason, and I do believe it’s our duty to live that out, and be the best version of ourselves while fulfilling our happiness.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

My mom passing was definitely the hardest moment of my life, I was in Texas, and my parents were in California, I flew out when I got news she didn’t have much longer to live, and kind of just waited for it to happen over the course of two weeks. My father was a mess and mentally couldn’t handle the situation, so figuring out how to handle an entire house in another state, all of the legal documents, and taking care of my father unexpectedly, without getting a chance to grieve, Weighed very heavily on me. I think in those moments something just lights up inside of you, and you become stronger than you think you can be. My father needed me, and regardless of how I felt that was my only focus. After her passing, I moved my him to Texas so he wouldn’t be alone, and life, kind of picked up and continued.

To be honest, my whole life I’ve had to exercise resilience. I don’t think life has ever been easy and one thing you always have to keep with you is that regardless of what’s happening, it’s always going to be OK. I’ve always had an overwhelming feeling of peace with me through every single storm And I think that’s helped me to push through the hard parts.

Just remember, you don’t have to carry at all, we’re all human, it’s really hard sometimes, but you got this    

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @inbloom.art @inbloom.ink

Image Credits
@bypatortiz