ANASTASIA J. BELL

An important factor in my development as an artist and person is the story of a passion that derived from a perceived fault. I was extremely introverted. Growing up, I struggled with making friends and understanding social cues and body language. I lived in a conflicted household with many difficult social hardships and challenging personalities/disorders. 

It was through pinpointing where and why I struggled, that I found a new purpose in my life. For example, instead of accepting the notion of ‘faults’ in myself such as my shyness and lack of social/emotional intelligence, I instead embraced and actively sought to solve the issues through research and reflection. In realizing my lack of social/emotional awareness/understanding, which would often cause pain and confusion for myself and the others, I started to read books, study, and investigate.

 

I began to obsessively research communication/psychology, human/animal behavior, social cues, body language, how to solve conflicts, how to have a positive and healthy relationship, how to successfully communicate, and emotional intelligence/display to render the quirks of my personality into a boon rather than a bane. It became a passion that was enhanced with my own personal beliefs, and my fascination with art, and biology. I could now take difficult, abstract ideas such as emotions/conflict, approach them with a semi-scientific inquiry, and through this lens, take abstract ideas that normally I wouldn’t be able to grasp; and turn them into a more concrete, unabstracted form that I could understand. I apply these ideas into more than conversation and social interactions, but through multiple media, showcasing the biological and emotional world that I find so fascinating, and use my knowledge and passion for human and animal behavior and emotion to engage and educate my audience.