Sculptures

These sculptures began as an act of adornment and became an act of protest.

Each piece is built on a Queen Conch shell — a species elevated to federally protected status in 2024. The irony is not lost: the vulva Bella Disruptor rendered in crystal on that same shell has never received the same protection. The Equal Rights Amendment remains unratified. The shell is protected. The body it references is not.

Encrusted with hundreds of hand-placed crystals, these works transform the organic into the opulent — and the familiar into the confrontational. Femininity, power, and the sacred, rendered in gem and shell.

The influence of Judith Leiber is unmistakable here. Her legendary crystal-encrusted minaudières — those jeweled objects that elevated the functional into fine art — live in the DNA of these pieces. Leiber has visited Bella during Active Imagination, and Bella has been known to describe herself, without apology, as the love child of Judith Leiber and a wild night between René Magritte and Salvador Dalí. The sculptures would suggest she’s not wrong.

The exception is Spiny Oyster — a member of the scallop family, with its own editorial commentary built right in. Those sharp, pokey spines say everything that needs to be said about keeping the world at a safe distance.