Stefan A. Bell is an artist on canvas ... and in thin air.  This Austrian-born Canadian citizen now juggles professionally and creates paintings about juggling in Santa Fe, NM.

He moved to Santa Fe just two years ago because he thought his paintings may find buyers in that city, which boasts of being the third largest art market in the country behind New York and Los Angeles. While dealers have been encouraging, he has not yet landed a show, but wears the patience of a man satisfied that following his heart is the right thing to do.

Bell said, "There's not much of a market so far for paintings about juggling, but sometime you have to take dare and step outside of what everyone's doing. Since I love juggling and painting that's what I do. The time will come when people want it. It's colorful and positive, so I'll eventually hit a button somewhere. I may as well do what I believe in as what I really don't want to do."

That was the philosophy that led him to gradually give up a stable life as a commercial artist in Canada and begin orienting his pursuits toward juggling. He now only does occasional commercial jobs in his Csiszar Studios and submits bids to keep painting outdoor murals in Canada, an art form which has brought him considerable note and acclaim. He performs for birthday parties, festivals, weddings, museum openings and corporate affairs and teaches juggling weekly to a dozen students at Santa Fe Community College.

The rest of his days are spent in long hours of work on meticulously detailed surreal paintings of his daughter, Serena St. Cyr, posed with juggling props. He punctuates the long studio hours with "juggling breaks."

He's working on a series of 15 paintings of Serena, most of them 30-by-40-inch brightly colored canvases that look three dimensional in their reality, detail and

shading. "She's a natural model," he said, then added with confidence about the future of his work, "and will be famous some day!"