ArtPrize 2025: Dee Bellini’s ‘Dichotomy’
By Justin Tiemeyer
Contributing Writer
Dee Bellini, whose ArtPrize entry, “Dichotomy,” is on display in the front window of Periwinkle Fog, at 125 Ottawa Avenue NW, No. 160, in downtown Grand Rapids, was influenced by some of the greatest painters in world history, Van Gogh, Monet, and Mary Bommarito, her sister and a member of the Flat River Gallery and Framing artist cooperative in Lowell. “My sister Mary is a very talented artist,” Bellini said. “She’s actually more artistic than I am.”
This article is not about Mary Bommarito, but Bellini’s sister plays a big part in understanding Bellini as an artist. As anybody with a sibling knows, it can be difficult to be one of two or more artistic kids in the family. It always feels like somebody is stealing your spotlight. During her interview with the Lowell Ledger, Bellini spent plenty of time describing her sister and how she does not use references for her paintings, relying instead on her imagination. Bellini, on the other hand, enjoys knitting, crocheting, and making soap, lotion, and glass art.
“She’s the painter. I’m more of the crafter,” Bellini said. “Back years ago, we would say she was Martha Stewart, and I was Bob Vila.”
Artist or craftsperson, whatever the label, Bellini’s work is just as inspired as anyone in ArtPrize. “Dichotomy” is a stained-glass mosaic diptych of two separate lighthouses, one during the day and the other at night. What makes this mosaic particularly impactful is that the lighthouses are presented on a pair of windows that look like the shudders on a Lake Michigan beach house, and the colors are stunning.
“That’s the hardest thing about mosaics is the subtlety of color,” Bellini said. “You can get subtlety of color with painting, but you don’t have that option working with glass.”
For her lighthouse at night, Bellini started off with one solid color and then gradually worked in the other colors to get a darker sky. She even used actual rocks to depict the bluff that the lighthouse sits upon.
Bellini took a stained-glass art class 22 years ago, at Rainbow Resources on 29th Street. She had just found out she was pregnant with her youngest child, and she was ready to learn from the best. At one point, a student asked, “Is there ever a time when you wouldn’t want to work with lead?” Creating traditional stained-glass art almost always involves lead to hold the pieces of glass together, so it was a valid question. The teacher responded, “The only time you wouldn’t want to do it is if you’re pregnant.” That was the end of that class for Bellini, and aside from that brief experience, Bellini is 100% self-taught.
Flash forward to the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Bellini found herself with nearly two decades of leavings from her work with stained glass. “I had bags and bags and boxes of this scrap glass from stained-glass projects,” Bellini said.
Not wanting to put the glass to waste, Bellini realized that she could make mosaics with all of those scraps. With the help of one of Bommarito’s paintings as a model, Bellini embarked on her first mosaic. Since then, Bellini has submitted three glass-on-glass mosaics for ArtPrize, “Falls” (depicting Tahquamenon Falls) and “Tree Amigos” (a three-paned window with three different fall trees) in 2022, and the four-piece “Season Sentinel” in 2024, where each pane was a different season.
Bellini finds most of the windows for her mosaic projects on Facebook Marketplace, which means that she has found a way to mesh two of the most popular pastimes in West Michigan, art and antiquing, and she has help too. Her sister is always on the lookout for a great window.
“Sometimes the window itself inspires me to a piece,” Bellini said. “I have an old, antique mirror at home, and I know exactly the piece that I want to put in it. I always hope the finished product ends up as pretty as the one in my head.”
Bellini was one of the founding members of the Fulton Street Artisans Market, and she even ran it for a few years before retiring in 2016. She’s also a contributor to the three-day holiday shopping festival, Christmas Through Lowell, and her work can be regularly seen on display at Bommarito’s house. In fact, now that her ArtPrize piece is finished and on display, Bellini will be busy making gifts for Christmas Through Lowell, up through the middle of November.
Bellini, in addition to being an artist, is an art appreciator, as well, and she peppered the interview with stories about her sister being brought to tears at a Van Gogh exhibit at the Detroit Institute of Arts and Renoir needing someone to tie a brush to his hands, near the end of his life, so he could continue to paint despite crippling arthritis.
“That’s dedication to your craft,” Bellini said. “My dedication to my craft is the amount of Band-Aids I have on my stained-glass table.”
Dee Bellini’s “Dichotomy” (Vote ID 82046) can be seen in the front window of Periwinkle Fog, at 125 Ottawa Avenue NW, No. 160, in downtown Grand Rapids. Both lighthouse mosaics are for sale, separately or together. Bellini has a couple of pieces on display at the Blue House Art Square in Ada, as well. For those looking to follow her work beyond ArtPrize, look no further than Bellini’s Facebook page V Filius Glass Designs.
