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Spirit Not In Flight
original signed pastel
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Della Wells
Spirit Not In Flight
original signed pastel1994
1994
$6,500
£4,959.34
€5,645.82
CA$9,135.82
A$10,042.49
CHF 5,272.26
MX$119,412.47
NOK 67,707.82
SEK 61,674.51
DKK 42,183.31
About the Item
"Spirit Not in Flight," 1994, is a pastel work by Della Wells. The work depicts a nude black woman looking out from the picture, meeting the viewer's gaze. She is wearing a skull necklace and is holding an apple. A cardinal sits on her back. She appears to be in an abstracted garden or forest-like setting. The woman is an Eve figure, blamed for the sins of mankind.
Art: 15 x 22 inches
Frame: 22 x 29 inches
Signed and dated lower right
Wells is a self-taught artist who was attending collage to become a psychologist when she was assigned to write about a professional person. She chose an artist, who remembered that Wells had the ability to draw. The artist kept encouraging Wells, who started drawing and painting seriously at age 42.
Well's art celebrates the wild beauty, radiant colors, and rich textures found in nature. She also uses her studies in psychology, sociology, African American, and women's studies to shape ideas for her work. Della Wells is an extraordinary mixed-media artist.
Della Wells is a Milwaukee native who has described herself categorically as a self-taught folk artist but admits that these labels do not suit her properly. She has always been an artist and sold her first work at the age of thirteen, but didn’t start working in earnest until age forty-two. “Throughout my life people were trying to get me to do art,” she says, “but I didn’t have an interest. I didn’t have anything to say.” Della’s work is about storytelling she states, “I make up my own folktales in my work… I like to make up my own realities. I find a lot of people make up their own realities.”
It took some effort on the part of a college advisor and friends for Della to begin seeing herself as an artist; she had ambitions toward a Ph.D. in psychology. Now, Della’s work ranges from collage and pastels to quilting and she has shown all over the United States and abroad. Her creative process stems primarily from her personal experiences, embellished through the art of storytelling into a visual work, “I see myself as a storyteller,” she explains, “…and maybe I’m still finding my story.” Her images reflect her own experiences and occasionally the interpretation of other people’s experiences, her work is about life and therefore living. “Art is many things,” says Della, “I think we tend to think that it’s just paintings and sculptures but art is everything. Art is on this floor... Art is man’s desire to create. Art is also, to find you… Art is how we live our lives.”
- Creator:Della Wells
- Creation Year:1994
- Dimensions:Height: 22 in (55.88 cm)Width: 29 in (73.66 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Milwaukee, WI
- Reference Number:Seller: DB1884d1stDibs: LU605311233812
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