www.towntopics.com Open in urlscan Pro
209.17.116.160  Public Scan

Form analysis
2 forms found in the DOM

GET https://www.towntopics.com/wordpress/

<form class="form-inline" action="https://www.towntopics.com/wordpress/" id="searchform" method="get" role="search">
  <input name="s" id="s" type="text" class="input-medium span3" value="" placeholder="Search...">
  <button class="icon-search" type="submit"></button>
</form>

GET https://www.towntopics.com/wordpress/

<form class="form-inline" action="https://www.towntopics.com/wordpress/" id="searchform" method="get" role="search">
  <input name="s" id="s" type="text" class="input-medium span3" value="" placeholder="Search...">
  <button class="icon-search" type="submit"></button>
</form>

Text Content

Menu
Call Us 609.924.2200
 * About
   * Contact
   * Advertising
   * Subscribe
   * History
   * Letters Policy
 * News
   * Princeton Insider
   * Front Page
   * Breaking News
   * Other News
   * Specials
   * Videos
   * Sports
     * Local
     * University
 * Community
   * Obituaries
   * Calendar
   * Weddings & Engagements
   * New to Us
   * Classifieds/Employment
   * Mailbox
   * Princeton Personality
   * All In A Day’s Work
   * Profiles In Education
   * The Town Topic
   * Readers’ Choice Awards Results
 * Arts
   * Area Exhibits
   * Art Review
   * Music/Theater Review
   * Theater Review
   * Book/DVD/Record Review
   * DVD Review
   * Movie Review
 * Archives

December 22, 2021


LOCAL ARTIST’S “SICILIAN DREAM” MURAL INVITES VIEWING AND INTERACTION

“A SICILIAN DREAM”: A new mural by local artist Victoria Bell is featured at
Nino’s Pizza Star in the Princeton Shopping Center. The work, which took about
120 hours to complete, includes hidden elements for viewers to “search and find”
as they view the elaborate piece. (Photo courtesy of Victoria Bell)

By Wendy Greenberg

An eye-catching new mural in a local pizza shop allows viewers to interact as
well as view the art. The mural by local artist Victoria Bell, at Nino’s Pizza
Star in the Princeton Shopping Center, is getting a lot of attention. “It is so
colorful. Everyone is excited,” said owner Nino Spera.

Hidden in the large mural are 12 cars racing; 11 ships sailing; 10 bikini
athletes; nine row boats; eight orange trees; seven lemon trees; six bells
ringing; five red balloons; four birds singing; three Sicilian flags; two angels
hugging; and one pizza star (a slice of pizza). A search and find key is on the
artist’s website (victoriabell.com), but may be at the restaurant in the future.
Bell said it happened to work out to reflect “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”

The artist calls the 6-by-24-foot mural “A Sicilian Dream,“ and its beginnings
go back 17 years, she said. “For my daughter’s fourth birthday party, we planned
a party in Grover Park for all her preschool friends but then it began to pour
with rain. We all ran up to Pizza Star, and Nino saved the day with his kind
hospitality. I painted a Sicilian horse and cart as a thank you for that moment,
and then the Colosseum a few years later.”

Spera said those drawings impressed him, and when he decided to replace the
shop’s wallpaper that showed scenes of Tuscany, he asked Bell to paint the wall.
Bell said she knew that since Spera grew up in Sicily, she would paint those
scenes. “I would love to say that I went to Sicily to draw sketches of the
countryside, but, in fact, I used imagery from Google Maps as a way to create a
mental model of a three-dimensional scene of Sicily.”

Bell had studied mental models with Philip Johnson-Laird, a Princeton University
psychology professor, and used photographs of Taormina, Sicily, and flyover
screenshots for information on the lay of the land. “As nature is the best
reference for drawing, the palm trees and lemon trees were drawn from life,” she
said. “Six bells were added to the original sketches, because we are the Bell
family and there are six of us. A kind woman on Guyot Street in Princeton
allowed me to take photographs of her grape vines and I drew large grape
pictures from bunches of grapes hung from my ceiling.”



“My idea of having Mother Nature pour her love into a Pizza Star restaurant was
realized, although she is more obvious in the painting than I originally
planned,” Bell continued. “Mother Nature takes the form of Mount Etna, an active
volcano in Sicily.”

Bell said the “sense of space is also created by having objects diminish in size
by approximately 1 to .618 (my favorite ratio).”

The mural took about 120 hours over several weeks, with ordinary indoor house
paint, after the shop was closed for the day. During the process, customers
would offer suggestions, and the “search and find” was created. 

Bell studied art at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh but graduated with
a degree in psychology and earned a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Princeton
University. She created a collection of works and a concept, titled “Dream
Painters.” She has shown her work at  Triumph Brewery.

Spera is proud of the mural. He noted that Princeton Mayor Mark Freda featured
it in an Instagram post (“check out our new mural,” it says). And Bell is
pleased too. “Nino and his employees have poured their love into Pizza Star. I
highly recommend all their food, but especially his homemade lasagna and walnut
salad,” she said.

A time lapse of the mural painting, and the “search and find,” is at
victoriabell.com/nino-mural.


Save


 * ← Previous Post
 * Next Post →


SEARCH




Princeton, NJ

◉
28°
Partly Cloudy
7:19am4:47pm EST
Feels like: 19°F
Wind: 13mph WNW
Humidity: 36%
Pressure: 30.13"Hg
UV index: 1
TueWedThu
21/18°F
39/28°F
41/30°F

Weather forecast New York, New York ▸


CURRENT ISSUE

January 5, 2022
BROWSE PAST ISSUES
FOR STORIES THAT APPEARED ON OUR WEBSITE PRIOR TO DECEMBER 14, 2011, VISIT:
http://www.towntopics.com/backiss.html


‘TIS THE SEASON




PRINCETON EATS




PRINCETON AT ITS BEST 2021




BEST OF HOUSE AND HOME




TERHUNE ORCHARDS





A STORE BY PRINCETON MAGAZINE








PRINCETON_MAGAZINE


It’s the @artscouncilofprinceton’s honor to ho
Not a bad morning view! Find freshly baked delecta
Witherspoon Media Group is hiring a Classified/Cir
Happy New Year! Read today’s edition of the @tow
Katerina, the technician at @princetonanimalhospit
New Year, same spectacular sunsets at the @lvilles
Happy New Year! The @yardleyinn will be open

Read today’s edition of the @towntopics (Dec. 29
The next @wwfarmersmarket will take place on Jan.
Ring in the #newyear with a 3-course tasting menu
Read today’s edition of the @towntopics (Dec. 22
It’s been 92 years since @rutgersu was featured
It’s #friday! Be sure to try the mushroom raviol
Read today’s edition of the @towntopics (Dec. 15
Skate the day away at the eco-friendly ice rink in
@thepenningtonstudio toy soldiers are getting read
Read today’s edition of the @towntopics (Dec. 8,
Read the Winter 2021 issue of Princeton Magazine a
@princetonacademyhawks Parent of Alumni Diana Sull
How about a slice from @nomadpizza at the @princet
@capemaypoint_nj • 2022-SEASONAL BEACH TAGS
Read this week's edition of the Town Topics Newspa
@peddieschool student Karen Yao '24 helped get dow
@palmersquare and the town of #princeton wishes yo
It’s beginning to look a lot like #christmas at
New arrivals at @blueraccoonhome in #lambertvillen
Find great holiday gifts at @miyatableandhome in @

On December 5 at 7 PM, join @washingtoncrossingpar
The amazing volunteers at @winterthurmuse have bro
Read today’s issue of the @towntopics (November
Here comes @terramomobread’s #Panettone for
Load More... Follow on Instagram

> "Allow us to help you, to help your busines! Call us on +0044 1034 5623 or get
> in touch via email at mentor@mentorbiz.com"
> 
> Jane Tae, Customer Service




SOCIAL MEDIA