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thedrifter
12-05-05, 08:17 AM
Marine engineer moonlights as artist
December 05,2005
BY CYNDI BROWN
DAILY NEWS STAFF

Robert Bell admits he doesn't fit the stereotypical image of the sensitive artist - especially in the eyes of his junior Marines.

"Most of them get to know me before they know I can draw," said Bell, a master sergeant with 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion. "I have a 'rough personality,' and I don't have a very clean mouth sometimes."

But once those Marines are privy to his talent, they're still caught off guard by the seemingly contradictory natures of the artist and the warrior.

"I guess they're used to seeing me covered in mud and screaming at them," said Bell.

Still, he'd probably rather be covered in paint.

Bell, 37 and from Wisconsin, picked up his first brush in a ninth-grade art class.

"I didn't know I could draw until I was in the ninth grade â?¦ I just kind of tripped over it," said Bell, who had taken the nine-week class as one of his electives.

That year he entered three pieces in an art show - he came home with Best of Show and two first places. In high school, one of his pieces was on the cover of Soldier of Fortune, another he traded for a jeep. He had art scholarships to college but instead wanted to follow his dad, who fought in Vietnam, into the Corps.

"I didn't care what I did. I just wanted to be a Marine. From day one I knew this was what I wanted to do," said Bell, who feels lucky that he became an engineer and is able to work with his hands in some capacity.

"If I had to do something else, I don't think I would have been happy and would have probably ended up getting out," said Bell.

As a platoon sergeant Bell didn't really have much free time for his art, but since his promotion, he has been back in front of the easel, said Bell who plans to re-enlist for one more tour then, retiring with his wife of 15 years, Jada, to the Northeast (anywhere from Northern California to the Canadian border). Then he will dedicate himself to his art.

"It's something I hope to do for the rest of my life when I get out. If I could sit and do this every day, I would," said Bell, who also wants to get more into fine woodworking. "Either way you look at it, it's art."

When he's "into it," he paints two to three hours a night, four to five nights a week, using a variety of media: pencil, oils, even scratchboard. Lately, the vibrant colors he can get using watercolors has held a lot of appeal. The subjects, however, remain fairly consistent.

"Stuff that really makes me feel good, things that kind of take me away from the everyday world.

"I prefer to do wildlife. I'm from the sticks; it just feels right to me," said Bell, smiling. "I really like doing birds of prey and carnivores. I don't know why. There's probably some kind of psychological thing.

"They're not going to be around forever. I guess it's my way of keeping them around."

His ultimate goal is to enter - and win, of course - the Federal Duck Stamp Contest.

"It's like the being of all for wildlife artists," said Bell, who also would like to get his work into museums and start showing, particularly in the invitational Southeastern Art Show.

"It would be neat to get invited to that," said Bell, who attends each year to "rub elbows" and judge himself against other established artists. "I think I'm close. I ain't gonna say I'm there yet."

But he acknowledges progress in his work over the years.

"The more I do the better I get," said Bell, who has completed five to 10 commissioned pieces over the last few years.

"I've done a lot of pieces for friends who find out I can draw," said Bell. "I definitely will do stuff for people if they come and ask me."

He envisions most of his subjects in his head, using photographs and images only for detail work since he's a "stickler for details." His ideas, he added, come to him when he's "relaxed versus (going) 100 miles an hour."

An in-progress pencil and watercolor of a wolf in front of a full moon came to him in a dream. A tribute to his fellow Marines came to him on the road.

When his CO found out Bell could draw, the colonel asked him to paint an image on the bulkhead at 2nd CEB headquarters. Most battalions have their logo or the Marine Corps emblem, said Bell, who wanted something that would resonate with his Marines.

"I tried to come up with an idea that could mean more and the Marines know it's for them. A lot of Marines have come up to me and said, 'Thank you,' and it was a sincere thank you," said Bell.

The "Wall of Sacrifice" includes airbrushed images of Iraq and Afghanistan campaign medals and outlines of each country. It also names the 49 CEB Marines wounded in action, six of them fatally.

"Every Marine here has been shot or knows someone shot or killed," he said. "It was something I had to do. It was my way of paying tribute."

Bell finished the wall in August after about a month of work, but there are still six names since then that he has to add.

"Unfortunately that's the way it has to be," said Bell. "As long as I don't have to put any more KIAs on there, I guess I can live with that."

Ellie