Bonnie J. Smith
is a multimedia self taught artist with a strong emphasis in textiles. Her work
is about what she sees and knows.
Bonnie created
the award winning textile installation “Swimming Upstream” that is about her
suffering a life changing injury that confined her at one time in a wheel
chair. Having kept searching for answers she prevailed and once secure in her
knowledge that she would recover Bonnie created the 12 piece “Swimming
Upstream” textile series that became not just her story but of others also
trying to swim upstream through life. The series has now traveled to the United
Kingdom and across the United States.
Bonnie’s art has
been featured in Fiber Art Now magazine and her work is in the permanent
collection of
San Jose Museum
of Quilts & Textiles as well as private collections around the United
States.
Having curated
many exhibits she conceptualized and curated the successful “Forming Our Lives’ exhibited at the San Jose Museum of Art, San
Jose, and Ca. Her work has been exhibited at many of the United Nations
Headquarters around the globe as well as having her own featured exhibit at the
Festival of Quilts, Birmingham in 2017. In 2020 she was featured at the
Festival of Quilts Birmingham virtual quilt exhibit in the Dynamic Gallery’s by
invitation telling her story of living through the drought in Northern
California.
Bonnie was
recipient of the prestigious Leigh Weimer’s Award and grant in San Jose,
California.
She currently
sits on the Board of Southern California Women’s Caucus for Art.
