Conversations with Bonnie Lalley

Today we’d like to introduce you to Bonnie Lalley.  

Hi Bonnie, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, until 16 years of age, when my family moved to a farm in a remote northern region. This move from an intense urban experience to, what was then a wilderness, had a strongly formative influence on me as a creative and an artist. Flora and fauna and the wilderness of my memory are the sources of all my work. 

I received my master in Fine Art from the University of Illinois and afterward taught as an adjunct at various colleges until I moved to the country with my husband, the cabinetmaker and designer Timothy Lalley, and our daughter Elizabeth Lalley now a curator of contemporary art. 

We live near Lake Huron, north of Detroit, on a smallholding with seven chickens who all have names and a dog named Pip. Having the woods and a Great Lake that we enjoy daily has imbued all our lives and creative practices with atmosphere and passion. 

We have restored a farmhouse from 1911 which has given us space for growing things and a light-filled studio for me. We also gently use our house as a design lab where we host clients looking for art and design to augment their lives. 

My husband’s cabinetmaking skills have dovetailed with my art practice in the form of exquisitely crafted frames for all of my work, and my daughter’s curatorial skills have been my dependable resource in the form of ongoing conversation about art and design. 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Being an artist is never a smooth road-if speaking about financial success. Speaking for myself, it is always interesting and deeply fulfilling. I am a very lucky. 

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I was a traditional oil on canvas painter for many years, and, although happy in the act of creating I was unhappy with the results which just mimicked the Eurocentric male tradition. It was only after discovering the work of Mary Delany-the 18th C. English aristocrat and the work of the great 17th C. entomologist Maria Sibylla Merian that I moved on to working on paper and found my own voice. My work is mostly large-scale, inspired by flora and fauna still, but, using cut paper and a variety of water-based paints, I layer and apply images to French cotton rag paper. 

My work is textured and has a great deal of depth established by the technique which has developed organically. I also use gold-colored foil which is the detritus from chocolate bars and butter wrappers. 

My work will be on exhibit at the Saginaw Art Museum from July 20th through November 18th, 2022. 

The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you, and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
All of a sudden, people want something with meaning and are investing in original art. This has been good for me in terms of art sales, but it also moves me that in the Covid crisis, many turn to art rather than maybe, more fleeting sources of escape or revery. 

Contact Info:

• Website: www.bonnielalley.squarespace.com
• Instagram: bonnielalley

Image Credits
EE Berger