What It’s Like to Create Art in an Unusual Creative Space—a Science Lab | Danielle Mano-Bella
Danielle Mano-Bella is an Israeli-Portuguese artist and entrepreneur based in Jaffa, Israel. Holding a bachelor’s degree with honours from the Department of Multidisciplinary Art at Shenkar, Mano-Bella has exhibited locally and internationally. The Luxembourg Museum has recognized her work, and she has received grants for projects blending art, science, and multicultural community engagement. Her projects have also been featured in notable publications such as Yedioth Ahronoth, Timeout, and Haaretz. Mano-bella’s art captures the essence of diverse communities, including the LGBTQ, Arab-Israeli, Russian, Ethiopian, and BDSM communities.
She explores themes of identity, belonging, and the deep connection between humans and nature through photography and documentation. Her work examines mental, social, and environmental development, emphasizing the human experience’s commonality and role within the natural world. In addition to her art, Mano-Bella is an entrepreneur, collaborating with the Israeli biotech startup SilkIt and co-founding March, a tech-based art startup. Her projects often combine social initiatives and community-based art.
Danielle Mano-Bella is a featured artist in our book “Studio Visit Book 5”. You can explore her journey and the stories of other artists by purchasing the book here: https://shop.artstoheartsproject.com/products/the-creative-process-book
In this studio visit, we meet Danielle Mano-Bella—an Israeli-Portuguese artist whose creative journey blends art, science, and deep social connection. She invites us into her unique studio, which happens to be a working biochemistry lab, where she experiments with silk-based materials and captures powerful images that explore identity, emotion, and human connection. Danielle shares how she balances structure with spontaneity in her process, discusses what inspires her, and lets us in on exciting upcoming projects. Sometimes joined by her biotech collaborator, the lab smells like a mix of sweet chemicals—changing with each experiment she dives into.
1. Can you describe your typical studio day and creative process?
For the past two years, my studio has been a laboratory. Before the lab became my studio, I primarily worked in places where I built installations, at home, or in temporary spaces that I rented for preparation purposes. Most of the time, I would photograph in different locations. In recent years, my studio has been in the biochemical lab of the Israeli startup “SilkIt,” with whom I have collaborated for two years to create innovative projects using biochemical materials made from silk. These projects combine traditional techniques like photography and cyanotype with innovative techniques I developed using biochemical materials from silk, which are initially intended for medical purposes, particularly skin grafts.
When not working in the lab, I mainly travel in nature, documenting through photography, meeting people from different communities, and capturing them and their surroundings. I strive to maintain a routine of persistence in my processes, but I don’t force myself into fixed commitments— I leave plenty of room for spontaneity and experimentation in my creative process. For me, the freedom to create is a supreme value; with it must come persistence, passion, and a deep love for dedication. So, describing my “creative routine” is simply about embracing these values each time I create, explore, and immerse myself in the process.
2. What is the primary inspiration behind your current body of work?
The most inspiration is the connection and relationship between all the different parts that create the whole. I bring this focus on processes into my work, constantly creating spaces for comparison and revealing the similarities between natural, social, and emotional processes. I see our existence as inspiration, and everything becomes a source of inspiration for my creations. This can stem from observing the development of a butterfly and connecting it to a fascinating conversation with a person I just met or relating it to my most painful childhood experiences or my most exciting ones. Collective events that evoke thoughts and emotions in me, such as wars or natural disasters, coexist with my observations of blooming in spring, renewal, and the cyclical nature of life.
I believe that we are all connected, and the most place we can see it is by exposure that differences are just outside, but from the perspective of inner views, we are all evolving the same. In my last project, “Memory Shape”, I explored the connection we have with each other through emotional memories without differences of where we are from which social backgrounds, Religion, Gender or Sexuality- somewhere in our life, we all experience the same feeling as Grief, Hope, Love and etc. when we put our focus on this thing we can see that we are all some inside, so if I Hate or Afraid from you – I feel the same to myself.
3. What is your favourite memory or incident from your studio?
The most exciting experience I remember from the studio was after I had conducted numerous experiments with innovative biochemical materials from silk to develop new techniques. The moment I could produce something and see that I had created something was incredibly thrilling—it carried a genuine sense of surprise and immense satisfaction.
4. Do you have any studio assistants, or do any visitors like pets or kids often accompany you?
In the studio itself, in the lab, I sometimes receive assistance from the owner of the startup, who is familiar with the biochemical materials and is a biologist. He helps me learn about the materials efficiently and the reactions between them. I usually rely on an assistant when I set up exhibitions or create installations in different spaces. There are not too many visitors in the lab, although I believe that when I have children in the future, I will bring them to create with me. Childhood is an inspiration where all creativity and imagination flourish. Most of us, as artists, strive to return to that place in our creative processes.
5. How would you describe a dream studio for yourself?
I feel that right now, I have the most dreamy studio I could have asked for—the laboratory and the environment—inside and outside.
6. If you could set up your studio anywhere in the world, where would it be?
Because I work in the lab, the scents change quickly depending on what is being done there. Today, for example, I was working there, and there was a sweet smell from several different chemicals, but sometimes the odours can also be quite unpleasant.
7. Can you discuss any ongoing projects or plans for your work?
I am very soon, in May, opening a solo exhibition that is a collaborative project of an installation I am setting up in cooperation with several artists who are also engaged in research. The exhibition addresses questions surrounding organic tissue, with all the artists starting from a theme I’ve been exploring for a while, focusing on social processes alongside psychological and biological processes. In this project, I am creating works from silk and MRI images I have collected of myself and others from different religions and cultural backgrounds, alongside still photographs of various figures from different societies worldwide.
The focus is solely on the body without a clear identity, as I aim to reveal how much similarity there is between each person when identity is blurred. In particular, in the MRI images, it is impossible to discern the culture or religious background from which the figures come. In the images, there are points that, when exposed to UV light, are illuminated. I compare this to the process of enlightenment at the level of our consciousness—when we look deeply at one another and do not focus on external identification markers. The artists I am collaborating with are also exploring this topic using different techniques and presenting works in the space based on their perspectives and fields. Ultimately, all the works will combine to create a unified installation that connects all the elements.
9. How do you organize your space?
I can’t say that I always manage to arrange comfortable workspaces for myself—generally, something about comfort can really stifle inspiration. Sometimes, the mess actually opens up my creativity for the next piece. I believe everything has its own order, even when it may seem chaotic at times, but mostly, I just make sure to have everything I need, and that’s okay.
10. What is your favourite corner in the studio?
The all Lab.
Danielle’s studio feels like a space full of wonder and discovery—part science lab, part creative playground. It’s a place where art meets biology, and curiosity leads the way. Depending on the experiment, the air sometimes smells sweet from silk-based chemicals and other times a bit sharp. It’s not your typical studio, but it’s full of energy, ideas, and quiet moments of reflection—like a living, breathing part of her creative journey. Visit our website to explore other artists’ virtual studio spaces. To get featured on our website, don’t forget to apply for this month’s call for art.
Read more about Danielle on her Website and Instagram.
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