Meet Bonnie Lebesch

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

Bonnie, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I’ve enjoyed many different “careers” over the decades. All centered around visual arts and design (graphic design, photography, user-interface design, education). Those varied interests allowed me to travel and live in different cities and to be exposed to many cultures and ways of thinking. Eventually, I discovered I was never going to settle on just one thing. Creativity is always leading me into new frontiers. I came to Colorado (for the second time) a decade ago and have been a full-time working artist ever since. Living and working in Northern Colorado allows me a simpler life with deeper connections to friends and community. My creative work has really blossomed here because I spend a lot of my time in the studio, and I’m able to explore and experiment with ideas freely.

Has it been a smooth road?
In my earlier careers, I seemed to have floated from one perfect situation to another, leading along a path that I could only understand in hindsight. I’ve always been open to following “the call” to my next crazy adventure. Some people would say I’ve taken a lot of risks, but never without the confidence that I would either succeed or have a great story to tell. About 15 years ago, I had what I refer to as the “superbly expanding experience” of a health crisis that completely stopped me in my tracks. Life as I had known it – from jobs/career/home – all of it ended. It changed every aspect of me, physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. Since then, I’ve had to rebuild a life with my new set of priorities and possibilities. It has been a long, sometimes excruciating, but rewarding haul. The strengths I used to rely on have shifted. I’ve learned to value things differently. I’m still learning, letting go, expanding, asking questions.

We’d love to hear more about your art.
I bring a very broad vision to my creative work that incorporates my love of color and form with the physical experience of working with different mediums. I love to explore and I’m willing to make mistakes and to try things that I am completely unqualified for. I was trained in careful perfection, to find the most ideal solution to every pixel or letter or line, and I was really good at that.

But somewhere along the way, I craved the experience of non-perfection – of getting off the computer and back into the physical world where paint drips and fabric tears and things go awry. And that imperfection is the most tasty experience of all. It brings me back into my body through the imperfection of manipulating objects in the physical world. I’ve begun exploring the vast inside world of the mind/brain, and how we experience or interpret experience or misremember things. My goal is to present this in a way that others can experience for themselves that takes them outside of their set parameters. Art, as I interpret it, is more about transformation than decoration. Sure, I want to make beautiful work, and I want there to be depth to it too.

Recently I completed a body of work that took six years to make. It is titled the Gun Show: Mending The Social Fabric Around Weapons And Conflict, and includes eighteen hand-stitched objects. It will be on view at the Loveland Museum in Fall 2020.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
People who devote themselves to the arts will do whatever it takes to create. This often means having a day job to support yourself while you develop skills and find your audience. This is true anywhere you live, not just in Colorado. Brick and mortar galleries are finding it harder to stay in business without having a niche market and national network. Increasingly, artists sell work online through avenues like Instagram. Because the market is changing so rapidly, artists need to develop marketing skills and sell to their audience directly. This has changed the arts tremendously, dividing the extreme high-end art world market from the grass-roots efforts of the majority of artists.

Supporting local artists by collecting their work is a very rewarding endeavor for many people. As you meet an artist and learn about their work, you develop a relationship that has meaning for you as an individual, and you find artwork that not only looks beautiful, it touches your heart as well. Collecting artwork is just not a value that has been taught in our culture. Since I moved to Fort Collins, I’ve been involved in numerous efforts to promote the arts with mixed results. I sit on the Downtown Fort Collins Creative District Steering Committee and I have a studio at the Artworks Loveland Center for Contemporary Art. Organizations like these rely on local, state, and national support and run on a shoestring budget. Its a labor of love for all of us.

Contact Info:

• Address: Bonnie Lebesch
  Artworks Center for Contemporary Art
  301 N. Railroad Avenue, Studio 111
  Loveland, CO 80537
• Website: www.bonnielebesch.com
• Instagram: bonnielebesch

Image Credit:
Jill P. Mott, Gabriele Woolever, Bonnie Lebesch

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