Katherine Bello

Bello received her BS in Chemical Engineering from Kansas University in 1988. Subsequently, she studied Fine Art and Design at Johnson County Community College from 2006-2015. During this time, she developed her recognizable abstract style and attention to colorways. She later went on to study Fine Art at Kansas City Art Institute from 2014-2018. She's influenced by light and landscape, poetry, history and science and drawn to the process of creating something out of nothing. For Bello, art is "a point of view, not only of the artist who creates the work, but also of the viewer who examines, interprets and lives with the art." As an abstract painter, she strives to push formal boundaries – always questioning, always curious, forever exploring. Spontaneity, intuition, and memory guide her as she continually embarks on "re-contextualizing personal nostalgia" through her abstract paintings. What inspires a particular painting? Do the inspirations change, day by day or do they remain constant? "My paintings are visually abstract. They come from a place of unknowing. I never know what will happen when I begin. It’s a journey. I began painting this way later in life, so I have a rich history of memory to pull from. I don’t have a memory for details - but I remember colors, places, sounds, movement, emotions, connections. There may be a current event or something I’m resonating with at the moment that sparks a new idea, but these fragments from the past continually inspire my paintings and what is most important to me."