Meet the Groton-based Visual Artist who Shares How the Pandemic Allowed Her to Become a Full-Time Artist
By Bridney C.
24-year-old Bella Rosado is a visual artist from Groton, Connecticut who found her love for art once again after the pandemic. She considers herself to be a cartoonist and portrait artist whose preferred medium to use is acrylic paint.
Right before the COVID-19 pandemic, Bella was a professional b-girl who competed and danced with Fan the Flames, a breakdance crew that has danced in numerous showcases around the East Coast since 2015. After suffering a severe back injury while dancing, her doctor advised her not to dance.
Feeling uncertain as to which other types of artistic outlets to turn to, Bella rediscovered her passion for art which proved to be therapeutic for her while healing from her back injury. Her friend, Tiffany Roman - a tattoo artist at Spirit Gallery Tattoo encouraged her to start painting again. Whenever the pair would hang out, they had painting sessions and did graffiti art together. Their hangouts involving art allowed Tiffany to branch off to tattooing and Bella to start painting.
"When quarantine hit, I hit hard with the painting so I could make more money out of it and I grew to love it more and more and now I’m in the process of creating my business with art."
As a child, Bella enjoyed hands on activities and loved expressing her artistic talents in art class. She enrolled herself in art classes in high school, realizing she had a natural gift at creating. Noticing she had another gift in dancing, she stopped drawing and became a hip-hop dancer.
She grew up in an artistic household where her father, an artist enjoyed drawing and her grandfather was an artist who used pastels and sketched in his free time aside from working as a carpenter. Her uncle is also an artist, and he sculpts characters from horror films. Noting that they all have different styles, Bella loves re-creating pop culture art with her own original style.
"It’s important for an artist to express themselves by creating because you get to know someone through their art since every artist has a different style."
On average, it takes Bella a couple of days to complete a cartoon art piece. If she is working on a portrait, it can take a couple of weeks - taking breaks in-between and making alterations along the way. Although she mainly uses acrylic, she has recently started to branch off to practicing with oil paint.
Two of her top favorite pieces of art she has created is a custom made Rick & Morty hat and her first-ever portrait, a painting titled Tony Montana. Most recently, Bella painted a custom Sweet Scoop Media painting on canvas featuring the logo and ice cream scoops.
"I find creating art therapeutic because I love seeing people's faces after I bring their ideas to life on a canvas or a piece of clothing, and it makes me feel great about what I’m doing. I love the after affect it has on people," says Bella.
Her rates for custom illustrations are as follows:
8x11 Cartoon Portrait: $40 CAD
8x11 Custom Portrait: $80 USD
10x16 Cartoon Portrait: $60 USD
10x16 Custom Portrait: $100 USD
Custom Hand-Painted Hats: $60
Custom Hand-Painted Clothing: Starting at $100
Be sure to follow Bella Rosado on Instagram @b_cust0mzz and Facebook.