Bonnie Gonzales

Bonnie Gonzales - ARTIST BIO
Bonnie has spent many years producing creative works for others while paying less attention to her personal need for artistic fulfillment. After several years of varied lifestyles and careers in the 60's (ski bum, flight attendant, hippie-commune-dweller), she made her way “back home” in 1974 to Leelanau County, settling in Empire, Michigan with her three-year-old daughter. She enrolled in the Commercial Art program at Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City, Michigan.

After graduation, she spent the next few years as an illustrator and layout artist for the Traverse City Record Eagle newspaper. In 1981, she left the area to blend the chapters of her life with her new Air Force spouse and gave birth to another beautiful daughter in 1984. She worked in Oklahoma as a graphic designer for a vocational technical school, then moved to Germany with her husband when he accepted a six-year overseas assignment.

While in Germany, Bonnie explored picturesque farm villages, markets, and neighboring countries while designing and marketing her own line of T-shirts. Later, she worked as a graphic designer for the U.S. Department of Defense in the Netherlands. Her husband’s final assignment landed them in Tucson, Arizona, where Bonnie worked as a Web Designer for the University of Arizona. After retiring in 2007, she purchased a small summer getaway on Glen Lake, Michigan, where she once spent her childhood summers.

She found her bliss in the summer of 2012 when she enrolled in a pastel painting class conducted by renowned Michigan artist, Mary Fuscaldo, followed by a class with pastel artist, Barbara Jaenicke, the next summer. Today, Bonnie is a Pastelist, focusing her art on landscapes of Leelanau County, Michigan.

If you would like to purchase or have questions about Bonnie's art , please contact her at: bonniegonzalesart@gmail.com. Commissions available.