"Neon Baby's Tia" Sculpture

ANDY BELLOMO’s artistic expression is deeply rooted in exploring, observing, listening and learning. As a self-taught artist, Andy began her creative interest as a young teen studying the color, light, shapes, and lines of traditional stained glass in churches. After feeling a great disconnect between the spaces in these churches and her ever-evolving experience within the LGBTQ community, she moved away from studying stained glass and instead merged its use of line, pattern, and design into her own practice, using what inspired her to propel her forward into a long-lasting art career. She developed her own unique style, creating movement and rhythm through line, and evolved her artwork into a fresh flow that now extends beyond the medium of glasswork into abstract pieces and large-scale murals. She has taken her inspiration from church glassworks and transformed it into meditative, visual explosions of color that empower and guide the work, re-imagining the meaning behind the glass. Always innovating, always learning, and always hustling, Bellomo is a dynamic member of the arts and LGBTQ communities in Chicago and a strong activist and advocate for social change and human rights.

Her current work includes the development of the Queer Mural Series with the mural, “The Love I Vibrate,” being the first mural collaboration in this series, and “Rebirth” being the second. This series of murals highlights the hard work and art activism of the LGBTQ community in Chicago. Each mural features a painted portrait of an artist/activist who has been using art to create social change and demand social justice, while supporting and bringing our community together. Bellomo’s goal is to create a series of murals that feature larger-than-life figures of these artists surrounded by a sea of color and movement to demonstrate the large impact they have on all our lives here in Chicago and beyond. These portraits not only give recognition to these activists, but are also meant to spark action and inspire future activists to make their voices heard.

Bellomo’s most recent collaborative mural, “The Love I Vibrate,” is depicted on the cover of the book, Art in Chicago Neighborhoods: Year of Public Art, a public art catalogue created by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events in 2018. In addition, she has been awarded public art grants by The Field Museum, DCASE, Chicago Park District, and the City of Chicago.