The Judgement of Paris 1986

“The Judgement of Paris”, oh yes! It must have been painted with incredible precision, the kind of skill that comes from really looking closely. Bell made this world of sharp focus, staging a beauty pageant with dolls. I wonder if he collected them? The dolls are so shiny, airbrushed into hyper-reality. I can almost feel the cool, smooth surface of those plastic bodies. And the light! It bounces off everything, creating these little halos around the edges of the figures. You can tell Bell really thought about how light works, how it defines form and creates depth. It's like he's saying, "Look! This is how things appear!" The dolls remind me a little of the work of other painters, like John Currin, who also toy with proportion and beauty. When I look at art like this, that embraces the weird and the uncanny, I feel like anything is possible. It reminds me to keep pushing, keep exploring, and keep questioning what it means to make a painting. Ultimately, painting is about embracing uncertainty and creating something new.