Being Bella…

Bella, aptly nicknamed ‘the Bellas!’, from the Reality TV Show, Fox Network’s ‘Utopia USA, 2015’, where she discovered a deep rooted, long lost talent and passion for fine arts and painting, Bella wears many hats to say the least.  She achieved her Certificate with Geoff Lawton out of Australia and is now a PRI Verified Licensed Permaculture Institute Instructor.  Her dream is to find a self sustaining eco-friendly off grid community and acquire some land to build a little cob house and start a Permaculture farm with Aquaponics/greenhouses.

Bella is a Survivalist/Prepper aka ‘Doomsday Diva’ (though her friends know and love her as the “Peppy Preppy Prepper with a Purpose”!); and ambassador to saving the planet and her ‘human and furry little friends’ alike.  Bella is an avid tennis player and loves a challenging dual to a game of chess.  She feels most at home relaxing outdoors close to nature in her ‘Keyhole/Crop Circle Gardens’ or playing with her cats.

“I get much of my inspiration from traveling back in time whilst gazing upon masterpieces painted by my great-great-grandfather Esteban Chartrand.  Like my grandfather, I find my inspiration for painting when I’m connecting with Mother Nature and all of Her Beauty God has Bestowed upon us here on this Beautiful Planet we call Earth.  ”

Art critics consider Esteban Chartrand (1840-1884), whom Bella Chartrand is named after, to be one of the most outstanding Cuban landscape artists of all times. Since he, like Bella, was very young, he showed vocation and talent toward the fine arts, probably encouraged by his mother, Luisa Carlota Dubois, a highly educated woman, pianist, and aficionada of portrait painting.

Click here to see how you, too, like Bella can build your very own little ‘Hobbit Home’ and thrive off grid!

Her favorite pastime, however, was running wildly about chasing fireflies at dusk with her little brother and  sneaking their ‘bounty’ they’d stuffed proudly into mason jars upstairs to their bedroom where for hours they would tell ghost stories under the covers lit by the magical blinking lights.  For fear of waking their parents, try as they may, laughing wildly trying not to make a peep, they would make shadow puppets on the wall until they began to fall asleep.  And all of the little ‘glow bugs’, one by one, they’d set free, giggling to each other watching them fade into the night,  whispering one last farewell before crossing over into their little dream world where they too could be free, “Good night; sleep tight; don’t let the fireflies bite!” 

Born and raised in a small town in the deeep South in the ‘Heart o’ Dixie’, you can often hear Bella saying in her thick Georgia Draaawl, “We Prep so you don’t have to Schlepp!” and if you choose to live off grid, ‘Don’t Just Schlepp it…Schlepp it ‘Bella Styyyle!’ And being a true blue Southern Belle, Bella takes camping to a whole ‘nother level…”We don’t go campin’; we go ‘Glampin’, y’all!”