The Bello Project

All expression is self-portraiture.

The way we walk, the way we talk, our taste in every single thing we say and do; it’s all an expression of who we exactly are, and can not not be. Right?

We are all great artists in this regard.

So when you look at the work of an artist, every single thing about it - size, subject matter, color, perspective, the quality of the brushstroke or line - it’s all telling you something about who that artist exactly is.

Who I am is someone who grew up having way-down-the-road experiences, and I think that you can see it in my paintings, provided you spend any amount of time looking at them.

I think they have a magical quality about them.

I’m forever seeing something different, or is it that they take me somewhere new?

Or is it that, whatever I’m thinking about, they go there and expand upon it?

They can take you beyond what you think.

This painting is entitled: “Sunny Day” (in reply to Vincent’s “Starry Night”)

It is the first painting in The Verona Series.

I’ve been a full-time artist for most of my life.

I was born with a gift and pushed it hard.

I’ve had over sixty solo shows, mostly in NYC.

I’m in lots of important collections.

I was doing real well in Gallery World, right up until the time I decided to drop out of it.

There were two reasons why:

First of all: nobody spends hardly any time looking at a painting in a gallery. People just walk around in them and leave.

Great painting doesn’t give up hardly anything in that kind of time frame.

The second reason was that the directors of galleries, by and large, are not at all interested in the artist’s thought, especially if it is controversial in any way, as that complicates sales. Galleries are businesses with lots of overhead and all that they generally care about is product to sell.

This doesn’t work for me because from the age of five, until I was twenty-three, I used to have these full-blown cosmic experiences every day, just by blinking my eyes. I’ve since come to think of the experience as being the universe intersecting with my life.

I always saw my art as being the stage I had to build to gain the respect so that my thought would be considered.

My thought is deeply rooted in those experiences.

Though I have been a resident of Verona for 24 years, it wasn’t until the The Verona Public Library Show (2025) that I decided to make the township the focus of my artistic efforts.

As part of that show, I had visited almost every business in Verona passing out invitation cards.

That’s when I met Daniel at Bello.

He’s a very alive kind of a guy. I asked him if I could lend him one of my paintings to take home and live with for awhile.

A month or so later, I made an appointment to get a haircut, which inspired the two paintings that you see here.

This one is entitled: Thoughtful (full of thought)

I just delivered them to Bello yesterday, where they will hang until replaced by the summer show in July.

Being very alive and inquisitive (as well as a practiced conversationalist I’m sure) Daniel had many questions about my art. The kind of questions everybody might have, thought I.

Eventually, the conversation got around to what we will call my more cosmic side.

This is where I generally run into trouble with galleries.

Daniel said: “Hey Will. Get over here and hear this.”

Turns out Will has his own cosmic past.

I’m thinking a series of “Barbershop Conversations” cartoons featuring the three of us, appearing here every change of shows.

Stay tuned. 4. 15. 2026