BRIEF BIOGRAPHY
Michael Bell is a a renowned American artist, author, TED speaker, and visual journaling pioneer most famous for his larger-than-life sized narrative series paintings and celebrity portrait clientele, which includes John Gotti, Dominic Capone and numerous actors from the Sopranos, Goodfellas, A Bronx Tale and more.
Bell has also excelled in the field of education, as a National Board Certified, former 3X National Award-winning Teacher of the Year who has been honored with numerous other awards, including: QACPS 2024 Outstanding Leadership Award, the prestigious National Art Education Association (NAEA) 2024 National Administration and Supervision Art Educator Award, a distinction bestowed upon just one Art Supervisor in the entire nation, distinguishing Bell as a leader in arts education nationwide. In 2022 Bell was awarded the NAEA National Supervision & Administration Eastern Region Art Educator of the Year Award, 2019 November Maryland State Arts Leader, the Washington Post's Agnes Meyer Teacher of the Year Award, the CollegeBoard's William U. Harris Award, the National Art Education Association's NAHS Sponsor of the Year Award, the Lycoming College Dr. James Douthat Outstanding Achievement Award, the Los Angeles Good Shepherd Community Service Award, in addition to being a 7X back-to-back NAEA Rising Star award-winning visual arts educator and 3X National Scholastic Art Gold Medalist Arts Educator.
FULL BIOGRAPHY
Bell has always been naturally gifted in art, winning 1st Place in the first art show he ever entered at the age of five. As an emerging artist he spent a lot of his time in and around New York City studying art with his maternal grandmother, Violet Vallery, a self-taught artist from Lyndhurst, New Jersey. This is where Bell began to explore life's psychological issues through his paintings.
As a longtime activist, Bell recieved the Los Angeles Good Shepherd Domestic Violence Community Service Award in 2005 after sparking the movement to create hundreds of handmade sketchbooks for the women and children's shelter in LA annually. Bell has championed this cause working with painting client Georgia Durante, along with Denise Brown, sister to Nicole Brown Simpson, slain ex-wife of O.J. Simpson. Bell also created the notable portrait of Amanda Todd, the Port Coquitlam, B.C. teen that tragically committed suicide after documenting her years of bullying on YouTube. This portrait made international headlines in the Huffington Post and forged a relationship between Bell and Carol Todd, mother of the fallen teen, to end bullying and raise awareness to the cause. In 2012, Bell's activism led to a collaboration and lifelong friendship with world-renowned artist friend Eric Fischl, contributing projects based on our 30 Human Rights for Fischl's AMERICA: NOW AND HERE movement, which also included a Barbara Kruger wrapped truck. This sparked an impressive Super Session of Bell's innovative 31Nights project at the NAEA Convention in New York City, and has prompted numerous keynotes and workshops across the United States. In 2022, Bell returned to New York City, where his journey first began to receive the 2022 NAEA National Supervision & Administration Eastern Region Art Educator of the Year Award at the National Art Education Association National Convention.
In addition to Bell's notable accomplishments in the art world, Bell has donated his time and thousands of dollars through the sale of his paintings for numerous charities at auctions in Maryland, Delaware, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. Bell has also written a screenplay based on the real-life events surrounding his famous Ticket to Ride painting series, which was first launched at a solo exhibition in Manhattan. The show was attended by some of Bell's celebrity portrait clientele, which led to Bell's partnership with HBO's the Sopranos star Joseph R. Gannascoli and the creation of artwork for Gannascoli's CUGINE Cigar Line and a portrait unveiling with Sopranos stars Dominic Chianese and Frank Vincent to benefit Bright Steps Forward and help fund their Educational Academy for Autism.
In 2018, Bell became Supervisor of Visual and Performing Arts, World Languages, and School Library Media. He immediately took his blueprint for creating prominent art exhibitions to launch ArtScene in 2019, which is now one of the largest TWO K-12 student art exhibitions in the state of Maryland, in addition to helping the district earn Seal of Biliteracy Awards, creating the district's first Arts "Teen of the Week" features in the local news. In October, 2018 QACPS took 1st place honors in the state of Maryland in Visual Arts, swept the high school student art awards at the Academy Art Museum Show in Easton, and in November, 2019 Bell was awarded the Maryland State Department of Education's Art Leader Spotlight. Since then, QACPS has earned the districts' first ever Scholastic Art awards at both high schools; National Art Honor Societies and AP Art and Design courses were also established at both high schools for the first time in QACPS history. Students also earned All-State in Dance and Music in 2020; and QACPS was recognized as one of the nation's "2020 Best Communities for Music Education". This has all led to Bell's 2022 National Eastern Region Supervisor of the Year Award, where Bell was honored to receive this award on behalf of all the teachers he works so hard to champion now. His mission in arts education is to encourage all teachers to "stay artists". Recent accolades include the QACPS 2024 Outstanding Leadership Award and the prestigious National Art Education Association (NAEA) 2024 National Administration and Supervision Art Educator Award, a distinction bestowed upon just one Art Supervisor in the entire nation, distinguishing Bell as a leader in arts education nationwide. That's an important reason he's a nationally respected leader in arts education and why he's in-demand as a keynote speaker and visual journaling pioneer across the US.
Bell holds a BFA from Lycoming College, a M.Ed. in Art Education from Towson University and Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Administration and Supervision from McDaniel College. Contact Michael Bell to book him as an inspiring keynote speaker; inquire about future gallery exhibitions or to commission an original work of art.
back to top
|