"Somewhere between the Adriatic and Mediterranean I encountered my muse. Was it the rich distressed textures on ancient walls and the decay of wooden Venetian gondola posts or the celebration of human form seen in the many fountains and statues? How did Bernini create strong marble fingertips pressing into soft marble flesh? Just what did Michelangelo do to liberate his figures from the stone but still allow them to remain captive in the raw unpolished marble? I see the cracks, the chips, the erosions and the patinas as a tribute to time: seemingly worn like chevrons on a sleeve. I noticed the way these imperfections define form much like the shadows from a lace veil playing over a woman's face.
I try to blend these elements-form and texture in my work.
To create 'aged' textures I've learned to give up a certain
amount of control of the materials and to allow the unanticipated.
I merely shepherd the elemental forces at work in applying
mediums and watch the chemistry. I begin to see dunes and
delta, wrinkles and erosions and love to see what happens
when a flash flood of thinner or pigment cuts through the
landscape.
My paintings try to merge classical polished sculptural
form with a weathered, roughhewn environment. The raw seems
to catapult the rendered. Coming from a medical illustration
background I can't help but infuse my art with an understanding
of the human form. When passion collides with anatomical
accuracy, the result is dynamic motion and emotion within
the figure".
Bonnie Hofkin received her bachelor of arts from the University
of California at Berkeley and continued her study of illustration
at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.
With a passion for human anatomy she went on to obtain
her Masters of Arts in medical illustration from the University
of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. After decades
freelancing out of New York City and the San Francisco
Bay Area, she put down her airbrush for a paintbrush and
began to render human form with an anatomist's eye.
