Artist Statement
Robin Bell began photography after a broken back left her disabled and alone in a small rural community. Over weeks, she managed to walk as far as an old sea captain's house. She bought her first camera and created a rehab regimen of walks to shoot the abstract reflections off the old windows. The walks for the photos led to her complete recovery.
Bell is now based in New York City and Block Island, Rhode Island. She had a recent 2-year stint in Los Angeles. Whether exploring a New England farmhouse window, a Los Angeles pool or digital abstractions of junk, her work directly follows from her first photographs of windows. Her projects are on the individual experience from abstract color and shape, and they derive from one place.
Bell’s work has been exhibited nationally in, among other places, Los Angeles, New York, Minneapolis, Baltimore, Washington, D.C. and Portland, Oregon. She was a selected artist in the LACP group show, Street Photography Around the World completion. Her work is in an upcoming shows in Spain and Hungary.
On Block Island, she served on the executive board of the Spring Street Gallery, where she developed outreach and exhibition initiatives for local artists. She also created, in collaboration with the Block Island Library, a free photoshop program for island residents.