frank bonanno

Artist Statement

If there is one thing the internet has shown me, its that being able to create hyper-realistic art is not special anymore. There are tons of people who can do it. But when I see it, what I see is a perfectly rendered subject on an otherwise empty piece of paper. Photo realism in a sketchbook. Perfection for the sake of perfection. I find that lifeless and bland. I want to try and bring something more interesting to the table and if I have to sacrifice some realism to do it, then so be it. Surrealism is sort of baked into who I am. I close my eyes and I just see things and then I am compelled to create what I see. I also have very vivid and completely insane dreams and that too has been a source of much inspiration. Also I pull inspiration from the world around me. Most of my pieces are named after lines from movies or song lyrics as a love letter to my appreciation for both of those media. I also love painting textures such as stone or wood and trying to take them to a more artistic place and less of a direct representation. Lately I have also really fallen in love with abstract geometry and try to play with that and intertwine the two styles in ways that I find fun or interesting or different. I make the stuff I like and hopefully people respond to it. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't, but I love the things I make and that's good enough for me. "I'm average and screwed up enough that I might just write a song that will live forever" - Chester Ogilvie

Biography

Art has been the one constant in a life that has been utterly chaotic and completely all over the place. When I was a young asthmatic child who was allergic to the world, I sat in my room and drew for hours and hours, first tracing, then copying then composing. When I moved to a new school and had no friends, I sat and drew in a room full of people and they came to me. The art room in my high school is where I felt most at home, where I really learned how to socialize and become an outgoing person. In college, I would hide from the world in my schools giant sculpture building, welding and building and crafting until the sun came up. I have seen almost this whole country thanks to my love of art and the doors that has opened for me. I have been a blacksmith apprentice, a tattoo artist and a plasterer. I picked up and moved from New York to L.A. and broke into the film industry, designing and building sets for film, television and the web. I have done national promotional event tours, I have done window displays for Chanel and Macy's, I have done furniture construction and restoration. I do murals and faux finish interior painting and still am trying to bring my skill set from being a set designer to the home, creating fully fleshed out themed environments for people. Now I am an art teacher, sharing my love of the arts with a new generation, looking out for them, guiding them and hopefully doing a better job than my tenth grade art teacher, who told me to give up and change careers. What an asshole she was.

Exhibition History (CV)