The kaleidoscopic acrylic paintings of artist Bucklee Bell cover politics , exotic Asian subjects , natural disasters , the human condition, his stand against genetic modification of plants, war , aspects of his early life in America when he was involved in the hippie revolution . Then there is his black and white art side , his love of tribal art , his wide knowledge of beads .
In this post the emphasis is on his political views, which leave no doubt about his feelings . The above work is entitled Parliament, a uniform mass of block like figures .The larger one bottom right in the painting could be mistaken for a Nolan rendition of that good old boy, Ned Kelly , the Australian bushranger, but no.
The godawful former US President ,George "Dubya" Bush, is shown below, in the nude, being slowly lowered , ingloriously , into the River Styxx.
The fact that prisoners were waterboarded , an act applauded by Vice President Dick Cheney,resulted in him being depicted as "Coffee Boarding Dick Cheney."
The use of drones to bomb people is also covered below in another striking work . In the top drawing a nude woman lying on the floor in an apartment says it is a "no drone day" but in the bottom panel it looks as if a drone is coming on a nice sunny day,seemingly guided by a strange figure with a halo?
After all this political mayhem, bombing , barbarity and tampering with plant genetics , can there possibly be a beacon of hope up ahead ? Well, yes , if you are hallucinating , and scan his acrylic on canvas below called , "What's that at the end of the tunnel ?"
It seems to indicate that illumination of a kind could be spotted by some unusual surviving life-forms , including an anorexic Ossie Ostrich from Hey! Hey! It's Saturday! , a mutated Galah, a serpent developing a forked tail , some freaky fungi and Mae West's bust on a pedestal. The borders remind one of panels in a prize winning Country Women's Association patchwork quilt
And now for something entirely different ...Bucklee Bell models one of his own fashion creations at an exhibition of his black and white art in the Meeting Room Art Café Gallery-a great place to chill out , run by Joe-in Chiang Mai,Thailand. If Versace and Nike don't rush in and sign him up it will reflect badly on them.
