Please join the Seabrook Island Artist Guild for a reception
to meet Bonnie and view her beautiful fiber art.
Tuesday, March 4, 2025
4:30-6:00 pm
The Lake House Art Wall Hallway
A statement from the artist:
Originally from upstate South Carolina, I moved to Columbia in 1975 to attend the University of South Carolina earning a Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies Degree along with classes in Studio Art. I now live on John’s Island with my husband of 42 years. We have two grown sons and one granddaughter.
After retiring from a 30-year career in residential and commercial interior design and owning my own interior design firm, I discovered the beautiful and tactile art of creating art with fiber. Ninety percent of my work is made using wool yarns and wool fleece. With this, weaving and felting became my new love.
I am self-taught in plain weaving, tapestry weaving, and rya weaving— a Scandinavian variation of a Ghiordes knot. Wet felting dyed fleece and needle felting the same type of fleece, I create abstract and interruptive artworks. My work is either mounted in a frame with no glass or on waxed birch panels exposing the lovely texture of the pieces. I encourage touching.
My interruptive tapestries are produced on a large upright floor loom and follow a pattern drawn by the artist, referred to as a “cartoon” in the art world. Most of my tapestry weavings hang from a waxed birch dowel. My wet and needle felted art, also follow a cartoon I draw. This guides me through the felting process, producing abstract and realistic subjects.
I also work in fiber collage that result in hangings using upholstery and drapery fabric samples left over from my interior design shop and gifted fabrics from friends such as silk scarves and worn-out silk Sari’s. The collages are usually in frames behind glass. I feel strongly about upcycling fabrics of all types to keep them out of landfills.
I have commissioned pieces hanging in Hotel Trundle, a boutique hotel in Columbia, South Carolina and the Pink Lotus Yoga Studio in Lexington, South Carolina along with several commissions created for private collections.
In 2024 I published and copyrighted my first book of regional observational prose, stories and free verse poetry entitled “Time to Put in the Minnow Traps”. I am currently working on a revised version, including many new writings.
Please join the Seabrook Island Artist Guild for an Artist of the Month reception to meet Bonnie and view her unique work on Tuesday, March 4 from 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm at The Lake House in the Art Wall hallway.
-Submitted by Seabrook Island Artist Guild
(Image credit: Bonnie Younginer)