Les Bell

Girl with Spots, Leslie Bell

Les Bell and I have been exchanging emails for a few months, recently Les put some of his thoughts about being an artist into an email, and it was so interesting that I asked if I could post it, here it is:

Artists are by nature strange. It's a requisite of the job—to stand aside from society and look at it from a bit of a distance. Not so far that one disassociates oneself from it but far enough to avoid being either overawed by it or to being suckered into an unquestioning acceptance of "the way things work". I've got to start writing down good quotes more often but I've seen several similar quotes in recent years including one by Frank Zappa that said essentially, "You can't have progress without stepping outside of the status quo and sustaining risk". Artists seem to be those who spend a bit more time stepping out/sustaining risk.

You can see some of Les's paintings, and read about him if you click here.