Jodi Bonassi
Jodi Bonassi is from Los Angeles. Her narrative paintings and drawings explore diversity, and the human condition.
Exhibiting since 1991, her works have garnered reviews, awards and articles, locally and nationally. On “Chungking Alley” Mat Gleason quotes: “My impressions of the piece are that it asserts its own art historical narrative instead of submitting to academic structures and choices. An amazing dreamscape narrative with painterly precision”. (2015, Genie Davis, “LA Art Scene Mural-On Canvas”)
Curators include Betty Brown, Mat Gleason, and more.
In June 2018 she will be an art resident at Torrance Art Museum.
My work leads the viewer into a dialogue about the connections and differences between people in contemporary times. The rich cultural diversity of Los Angeles, my hometown, drives me to create drawings and paintings about the sometimes momentary but intense relationships experienced by individuals passing through the urban environment. Using my on going sketches and quick photos taken on impulse of people on the metro and other places, I create painterly portraits in an urban milieu.
ARTIST STATEMENT
These specific paintings are part of a series that began in the late 1990’s and continues today in other series. In all the works, there is food. When people are eating and talking magic can happen. I think food brings people together. When people share food it doesn’t matter what their difference are. A meal can lead to learning about other people, making life changing decisions and tie people together that might not otherwise be linked.
“Dew Drop Inn”, “Picnic” and “Love In Every Bite” are stories that encompass gender, diversity, societal norms, disabilities, learning, loving and other life experiences. Life struggles, memories, love, pain, loss, forgiveness and acceptance are the human experience.
The people in the works are students, mothers, daughters, fathers and sons, sisters and brothers. We carry the threads of generations past to grow and learn from family and friends in the present. We are students and teachers to each other.
“Dew Drop Inn” is about being a part of society and dropping in to the conversations taking place. The surreal setting is a mix of people and places. People play chess at an outdoor mall while a young female student does her homework on a computer in a comfy chair on a checkered street. A man in a wheelchair looks at a woman as she exits a store. There are no cars on the checkered road that leads to other places unknown. There are cafes and a clothing shop for those seniors called Forever 81. It is the world as I wish to see it.
“Love In Every Bite” is about the long road we are on. We can go anywhere or nowhere. Attitudes and beliefs are instilled in us as children and then life hits us. We carry the experiences, good and bad from generations past and present. This is about acceptance and forgiveness for others and us in the ongoing struggle of the human experience. Love and forgiveness set us free.
I begin with observational drawing. I then utilize my sketches, along with photo references, memory and stream of consciousness to create a narrative of stories in paint.
I look for the connections and differences between people in contemporary times. The rich cultural diversity of Los Angeles, my hometown, drives me to create drawings and paintings about the sometimes momentary but intense relationships experienced by individuals and groups in places of communal exchange or passing through the urban environment.