Rising Stars: Meet Bella Grace Cordero

Today we’d like to introduce you to Bella Grace Cordero.

Hi Bella Grace, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
My parents began my love for art. My father was a musician, and my mother was a dancer growing up. There was always some form of music or movement in the house. My father was my first music teacher, and my mother sparked my love for dance at a young age. I was originally born in California before moving to Kansas City but spent my younger years growing up in Clermont-Ferrand, France with my great-grandparents before they passed. Growing up in the same apartment my father did when he was my age. Those early years have had a large influence on my work today. My family always supported the arts at a young age for me, I cannot thank them enough. I found my love for photography on my own around the age of twelve, it was only a hobby at first. I was hired for my first paid shoot my junior year of high school and it slowly continued from there. I began to nurture my passion for photography and dived head in. Creating my business, Bella Grace Photo & Video Services LLC, at a young age. I was accepted into the Kansas City Art Institute in March of 2020. In my first year there, I found my love of photograph expanding into other mediums, I found a love for film, sound, and performance arts.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
I experienced a serious sexual trauma at a young age that hindered the majority of my teenage years. It is unfortunate that it took something as awful as that to push me into the arts but in all honesty, it’s how I grew so close to the arts. You begin to feel a different level of passion for something when it changes from a hobby to a coping mechanism instead. I let my trauma block my growth for a few years but I have been trying to turn it inwards and create art out of a difficult memory. There is a lot of correlation and metaphors within my deeper pieces that relay back to my trauma.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a young female artist in the local Kanas City area, specializing in photo, film, performance, and sound. I am known for most of my pieces working around the concept of movement and memory. I spend most of my time behind my camera, and I have been recently intrigued by the concept of the body’s natural movement. I am hoping to study the impact that dance can have on one’s muscle memory by documenting dancers in the upcoming future. I’m most proud of the performance work I’ve created while only being nineteen years old, performance art can be a heavy act to conduct from start to finish. Before I start a new piece, I always ask myself if I am currently capable of pushing myself mentally and emotionally as far as I can to document my rawest state of emotions in my work even if I am uncomfortable in the process. I hope to create work that is not necessarily pretty to look at but makes the viewer feel something in their gut instead.

Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
I studied ballet and modern dance for 13 years. I find my previous background in dance continuously influencing my artwork and my perspective when working. I love to capture the organic flow of movement in one’s body in a photograph. I always say you learn much more in dance than just the moves. There is a mental aspect to the disciple attached to being a ballerina that you carry with you your entire life, which I love to portray in my work.

Pricing:

• Studio Package – $100 – 1 hour, 1 outfit, * Does Not Include Studio Rental *
• Portrait Package – $150 – 3o minutes, 1 outfit, 1 location
• Artist Branding Package – $100 – 45 minutes, 1 outfit, 1 location
• Freelance Collaborations – Prices Vary

Contact Info:

• Email: bellagracecordero@gmail.com
• Website: https://www.bellagracecordero.art
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bellagracecorderoart/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bellagracecorderoart

Image Credits
Mari Charlson

Alana Belove