Baton Rouge, Louisiana - Statesman Emerson Bell

Emerson Bell doesn’t walk; he bops to the music within. When he arrives on the scene, complete with vest, scarf, and broach, his internal reality becomes the only reality. The crowd feels the music Bell feels inside, and somehow everyone in the room becomes just a little bit cooler. On the day I met Emerson, among those gaining hip-points by proximity were an LSU student hoping to interview Emerson for a journalism class, a young painter egger to show her work, and Louisiana mixed medium artist Gaylord James, who has recently rediscovered a thirty-five year old photograph he took of Bell sculpting in at the old state house. This is not a busy day for Emerson. Between old friends and new admirers seventy-four year old Bell is still in high demand.

“Emerson Bell is the last of the original hipsters,” said Louisiana State Museum curator, and childhood friend of Bell, Charles (Chuck) Siler. “I had heard about ‘Imp’ long before I ever met him. I thought they called him ‘Imp’ because he was mischievous, which he was, but I found out later it was short for Impresario.”

“Everyone had a nick name back in the day,” said Emerson. “The harder you tried to get away from it, the harder it stuck.” Despite Emerson the imp’s attempts to escape his nickname, he continued to impress artistic communities across the world. Whether sculpting in wood, metal, stone, or clay; printmaking from natural pigments; or creating dynamic impressionistic paintings Emerson received critical acclaim.