ddennis@comcast.net

941-371-8879

Watching colors from a stained glass window dancing on a wall was Bonnie Dennis's first visual memory of childhood. Today, her growing edge is keeping that wonder alive in her art.

A student at Ohio State in the 1960's, she began painting to protest and unjust war, censorship, women not having their most personal life choices, blacks being mistreated, and the destruction of the environment.

Then in the 90's, when Dennis moved to Florida, she had a life altering experience that as to change the way she would approach her work.

"I was contacted by a string quartet appropriately named MOB (Musicians out of the Box). They invited me to be their POB (Painter out of the Box). As they played, I painted." It was   the spontaneity of improvisation that renewed her enthusiasm and it is what drives her work today. After 40 years, her protests remain fundamentally the same, but her vision has deepened, allowing a window into her soul for the viewer to see what she sees.

"When I paint objects, musical instruments, rocks or trees, they can become people. If I start with live models, they might become trees, reptiles or insects." Her energetic expressions pop across undefined backgrounds, many are simply black, making her signature forms literally dance before our eyes. Bonnie Dennis doesn't alter what she sees and feels, she just shares.