Bella Schlotthauer is a Minnesota-based mixed-media artist and content creator with a passion for illustration, animation, and storytelling. 

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Art has been a lifelong passion of Schlotthauer's. Her earliest memories are of art projects with her family and friends and learning how to draw.  Additionally, Schlotthauer was lucky enough to attend schools with strong art curriculums throughout her earlier academic career.  Her creativity and curiosity were encouraged by all of those around her, which she credits as a major influence on her work. 

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Schlotthauer opted to pursue her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art with an emphasis in Digital Art and Photography at the University of Minnesota Duluth. During her time at UMD, Schlotthauer flourished in the School of Fine Arts community and found many opportunities to pursue her interests and meet like-minded creators. One such opportunity was volunteering at the 2019 Catalyst Content Festival in Duluth, MN. Schlotthauer also found ways to exhibit her work in somewhat informal group displays in UMD's art department as well as in the more formal settings of Prove Gallery’s What! The Feminist Show in March through April of 2020 and UMD’s Annual Student Exhibition in April of 2020.

 

In addition to being a student, Schlotthauer also worked in the School of Fine Arts at UMD as their Digital Art Studio Technician. In that role, she helped maintain the studio space used for those courses, assisted peers with learning editing software and answering equipment questions, and worked with several Digital Art professors on various projects. 

 

During March 2020, in her senior year at UMD, Schlotthauer was set to exhibit a solo show in the Tweed Museum of Art. Called "Attachments",  this mixed-media show was the culmination of Schlotthauer's work made as an undergraduate and focused on an introspective, autobiographical look at change and growth through the context of familial relationships and personal hardships. The exhibition was intended to be immersive, incorporating illustrated murals and animation with narrative voice-over to literally place viewers within Schlotthauer's perspective. This exhibition also included photographic and sculptural works that were echoed in the animation and served to highlight particular moments. However, her gallery exhibition was canceled due to the outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic. In spite of the extraordinary circumstances, Schlotthauer was able to find an alternative method to showcase her work by creating a website that featured a 3D-modeled version of the gallery space and images of each work that was going to be included.

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Since graduating from the School of Fine Arts cum laude (with distinction), Schlotthauer has sought out professional opportunities that will help her continue to develop her artistic practice.  A few highlights thus far have been her work as a freelance content creator at Tract making art lessons geared toward school children, and her experience as a portrait photographer during the holiday season. The hands-on experience in the art and design industry has been invaluable to Schlotthauer and has helped guide her personal work.

 

Currently, Schlotthauer works as a Creative Producer at KAAL ABC 6 News. In this role, she is primarily responsible for scripting, shooting, and editing promotions for the news station, public service announcements for local non-profits, and commercials for clients. Other responsibilities include creating static and motion graphics, animating series of gifs for client ads and other website content, creating, updating, and maintaining graphics used in broadcasts, dealing directly with clients and News talent, creating graphics and videos as needed for News, assisting in training others in the Adobe Creative Cloud suite of programs, and much more. The variety of responsibilities that make up the Creative Producer role has allowed Schlotthauer to thrive as a creator and lets her continue to develop her skills. 

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In the future, Schlotthauer plans on pursuing a Master's degree in Fine Arts and continuing to exhibit her work. Her goal is to one day tell the stories that are often ignored or overlooked by others and to uplift others through her artistic practice.