CAROUSEL I
pastel and mixed media
12.5 x 12 in.
framed
$375

Growing up surrounded by the beauty of the forest and lakes of north-western Ontario, artist Muriel Bell was influenced by the works of the Group of Seven painters, and inspired to study at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto.  Graduating in 1964, she was employed for fourteen years in the design and decoration of residential and corporate interiors, and recorded early furnishings of New Brunswick for historical records.

In 1978, Muriel began making art in her private studio and has exhibited both alone and in groups.  Her first solo exhibition was at the New Brunswick Museum in Saint John in 1980.

Muriel's work is both representational and abstract.  In painting, drawing, collage and assemblage she employs a spacious range of media from traditional to mixed, and chooses a diversity of subjects selected from all kinds of visual and sensory experience.

Over the years, Muriel has explored and experimented with various effects of applying media to a support surface.  Some of this work has gradually become integrated into larger pieces, and the techniques have become part of a working language. 

ARTIST STATEMENT

My work is often complex, using layering and texture in various media, including collage.  Often, allegory, symbols and metaphors are used to portray the nature of the subject.  The truth known by our unconscious mind seeks form in symbols.  When my rational mind is quiet, the meaning or interpretation of a work emerges, seemingly all on its own.

My enjoyment of colour, form, texture, pattern, structure can transcend the identity of an object and transform it into a different context.  In the same way, selection of unrelated objects may be brought together synergistically, united by some common factor. 

Understanding the process of speaking through mixed media has allowed more depth of expression, more dimension in my work, sought after the immeasureable loss of my eighteen year old son, David, to cancer in 1993.  The use of non-traditional art materials can enable the creation of spiritual metaphors. 

The process of creating is of immense value, one of well-being.

My work faces the viewer just as we stand before each other - enigmatic layers of emotion and experience, a magic synthesis of a moment or millions of moments of stored energy.  The images are symbols of some part of ourselves and the collective perceptions we all share. 

As well as private and corporate collections, Muriel's work is included in the following public collections: 

UNB Fredericton
Province of New Brunswick
Department of National Defense, CFB Gagetown, Field Artillery Combat Training Centre
New Brunswick Art Bank
Beaverbrook Art Gallery
St. Thomas University, Third Age Centre, Fredericton
The Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital, Fredericton
NB Provincial Archives (portrait of the late Hon. Muriel McQueen Fergusson now held by the Muriel McQueen Fergusson Foundation,  Fredericton)