From Surface to Structure

Featuring the work of Karen Bonanno

At a Mano, the work extends beyond the gallery through the artists who are part of it and the community that surrounds it.

This project brings those worlds together, connecting the artist community with the students at Torrington High School through a shared process of making.

As The Art of the Guitar takes shape, local artists are already at work, each beginning from a different place. Some chose to work with donated guitars, while others began with the case itself, approaching it as an object in its own right.

This first feature focuses on Karen Bonnano, a local artist known for her often figurative oil paintings.

For this piece, the direction did not come immediately.

Karen worked through a range of possibilities. Painting the guitar with thick, built-up brushstrokes. Collaging the surface with cut paper. Even experimenting with the idea of a lacquered pattern.

None of those approaches stayed.

It wasn’t until she began thinking about steampunk that the piece started to take shape. The idea of creating something that feels aged and worn, but also futuristic at the same time.

From there, the work opened up.

The guitar became a structure to build onto. Found objects, hardware, pipes, wood, metal, plastic, wire, and leather were layered and worked into the surface. Each element was adjusted, painted, patinaed, and distressed, creating a piece that feels cohesive, but built over time.

The result sits somewhere between instrument and object. Something that feels like it carries a history, while still being actively made.

What emerges here is not so different from what the students are working through.

A process of trying, adjusting, letting go of one idea in order to find another.

Different materials. Different experience.

But a shared way of working.

What you see here is the work in process.

Materials coming together, being adjusted, pushed, and reworked as the piece finds its form.

This is one approach. Other artists took different paths.

Additional artist features will follow.

Stay tuned for more.

Karen’s Finished piece; The GillianMaxx guitar, will be available up for raffle on May 29th.

For more information on the featured artist go to: www.karenbonanno.com