THE ARTIST
BIOGRAPHY
Niki Bonnett received her BFA in Illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1978. She was a graphic designer for fifteen years and operated her own design firm in Connecticut for nine years. Since 1993, Niki has been an artist whose mixed media work, with an emphasis on textiles, includes art quilts, collages, and assemblages.
For 18 months in 1998-99, Niki served as intern to Jane Dunnewold, Design Chairperson of the Southwest School of Art & Craft in San Antonio, TX. She has studied Dunnewold's "complex cloth" surface design processes and has combined them with additional processes to create much of the fabric used in her artwork.
Her work has been exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally, including such venues as Quilt National, Craft USA, Wesserling Textile Museum in France, Palais Rastede in Germany, and the American Craft Museum in NYC. Niki has been featured in FiberArts and Art/Quilt magazines; in Robert Shaw's book, The Art Quilt; and Creative Collage.
Niki lives in an old farmhouse in Asheville, North Carolina, has a studio in Asheville's historic "River District" area and is a member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild. She teaches and lectures locally at Piece Gardens as well as around the USA.
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
I cannot remember a time when I wasn't making art. My illustrator mother was convinced I would be an artist, and when I grew up enough to choose, I chose art as well. Only in the last ten years have I realized that art is no longer just what I make; art is how I see, how I think, and how I try to interpret the world around me. I don't live a "normal" American life. I gladly give up many things to acquire the most precious resource of all: Time. In every piece of art I make, my one underlying goal is to remind my viewers and collectors of these three things…
Recognize the beauty that surrounds us in the simplest of things. Recollect all five of your senses—use them to really "be" here now. And slow down.
"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take,
but the moments that take our breath away."
-unknown source
Seeds of Change Series - 15 x 15" - 2002 - Private Collection.
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