Our sixth visiting artist Dav Bell is working on his woodblock print project entitled And it Makes a Fiery Ring.
And it makes a fiery ring is a pursuit of love and healing through the observation of time, not the spiraling incessant tick of the clock, but through the slow, determined physicality of trees.
Dav Bell is an artist and independent arts organizer who loves collaborating with kind people to cultivate tangible and creative connections. Through encounter, relationship building, and skill sharing, he sees art as a possibility for truth and reconciliation. Much of his artistic practice and thinking is inspired by his upbringing on an ecological preserve in Southern California, where he was raised in a family of wildlife and environmental conservationists. He explores materials reuse and living sustainably through woodworking, writing, and gift-giving and is interested in how storytelling and craft can flourish in gift economies. Prior to making a life in the arts, he worked as a firefighter for the US Forest Service and as a park ranger at the Upper Tampa Bay State Park in Florida. He studied visual art at Metáfora School of Contemporary Art in Barcelona and holds a BFA from the University of California Los Angeles. In 2015 he founded the Los Angeles-based artist project Visitor Welcome Center which he directed through 2021. He is currently an MFA candidate in the Environmental Art and Social Practice program at UCSC, collaborating with L Gilbert on The Greenhouse Project: an intergenerational educational space that explores the relationship between art, food, and climate justice.
Merge, 2022, eucalyptus ash on kitakata paper, 24” x 16”
