AAEA is excited to announce our Keynote Speaker...

Michael Bell is a renowned American artist, most famous for his larger-than-life sized narrative series paintings and for his infamous portrait clientele, which includes Mob boss John Gotti, best pal Dominic Capone III (Al Capone’s great nephew) and numerous actors from "the Sopranos", "Goodfellas", "A Bronx Tale" and more. Bell’s works are often the mirror to a tragic world, but they deepen our humanity through psychology, ghostly brushwork and personal color palette that draws on memories and silent echoes from the artist’s own dark, turbulent past.

In the field of education Bell has been a pioneer of the Visual Journaling movement across the nation for over a decade. Bell is a National Board Certified, Maryland Public Schools Teacher of the Year and has received numerous accolades over his career, including: the 2013 NAHS National Sponsor of the Year; 2013 College Board’s William U. Harris Award of Excellence; the Washington Post’s 2013 Agnes Meyer Teacher of the Year; Scholastic Arts National Gold & Silver Medalist Educator three years straight, and his students have earned over 10 million in scholarship offers the past five years alone. Bell exhibits his paintings in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.

"I believe the most important job of an artist is to draw a line from your life to your art that is straight and clear. For me, it's not as much about what I do as it is about why I do it. To put it simply - our student's art matters. And so does yours. I'm going to show you how to tap into your "why" and unlock the key to your students' creative process along the journey." - Michael Bell

Michael Bell will be joining us from Thursday, November 10th to Saturday, November 12. He will be available for everyone to ask questions, collaborate and celebrate.

To learn more about Michael Bell, you can visit his website at http://mbellart.com.