 Bonny Leibowitz Bonny has been creating art for many years and began exhibiting her work in 1987. Her one person shows include those in Dallas, Palm Springs, Chicago and Santa Fe, to name a few. Her show, “Flesh, an exhibition of paintings revealing the soul,” was accompanied with a published catalogue. Bonny is a member of the National Association of Women Artists and has been recognized for her art internationally thru Israel bonds, traveling to Israel with Partnership 2000. Bonny has exhibited through NTBCA at IBM and is involved with art donations raising monies for Art and Advocacy. Bonny owns The Bonny Studio in Richardson, Texas, teaching painting classes and workshops, and is partnering with Deanna Wood, teaching workshops at The Encaustic Center. Artist Statement The paintings utilize color and line to develop and affect form and their impact upon one another, building a truth, shaping a reality. "I've been working with the figure in my art for many years now. Once confined by the body, our very essence has been released, and the forms we see now are "figure-like" and interact as relationships tend to do; impacting one another becoming part of who we are. The changes taken on, shape us into new states of being compelling us to exist in a transitioning biological, spiritual and cosmic truth." Linear eruptions convey the contortions and physical consequence of interaction. Juxtaposition of form and color create surface tension and movement. The world these "figures" live in becomes increasingly abstract and increasingly real. We don't want to leave. The work draws us in and speaks to our very existence. Bonny's website |
 Deanna Wood Born in Houston in 1966, Deanna Wood spent most of her childhood moving around the country with her family, returning to Texas in 1982. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Master of Arts in graphic design, both from Texas Woman's University. She worked as a graphic designer in a corporate environment for 14 years. After leaving the corporate world, she decided to pursue a career in fine art, receiving a Master of Fine Arts in painting from Texas Woman's University in December of 2004. She's been working with encaustic for 5 years. Her solo encaustic exhibition, Seeking Shelter, has been exhibited in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Reno, Nevada; Manhattan, Kansas; Lamoni, Iowa; Douglasville, Georgia. Artist Statement Tornadoes are frightening and deadly, but also strangely beautiful. Their raw physical power and destructive strength are awesome. An approaching storm can be terrifying but also exciting; the birds stop singing, the wind stops blowing, and the air turns an eerie green. The inspiration for my work comes from recurring dreams about tornadoes. The telephone pole image and the house shape represent our vulnerability to nature's fury. This work illustrates the fragility of life. By focusing on the human need for order in the face of chaos, it serves as a reminder that life is fleeting. Deanna's website |