St. Croix Artist: Bonnie Luria
Bonnie Luria has been a painter, a textile designer, an illustrator, a jewelry designer, a city girl and a full time resident of St. Croix for the past 9 years.
A native New Yorker, moving to St. Croix fulfilled her "lagoon fixation" that taunted her for most of her life. "I always saw myself living in a tropical location but, like most of us, thought it was a fantasy reserved for a weekly vacation until a chance encounter with a charming, convincing, and uniquely alluring man who had moved here eight years before I did."
Knowing that if you don't take a chance, chance takes you, she packed up her city tent and pitched it here, marrying her lure and revitalizing her painting career.
The whimsy expressed in these two covers is a departure from the more serious portrait studies of West Indian people engaged in daily tasks and simpler times that Bonnie has become known for here. She has enjoyed great success with her one woman shows at Maufe Gallery, Undercover Books and Gallery, and the Good Hope Fine Art Show. Her work is held in private collections here and in the U.S. Working from her home studio, she finds her inspiration from a personal archive of many of her own photographs. An example of this is the painting here called "Locally Grown" of a farmer on St. Croix. "I've been actively involved with supporting the resurgence of farming on St. Croix and seeing fresh food be appreciated and available. Many of my subjects come out of these experiences." Bonnie can be found on Saturdays, volunteering with the VI Farmers Coop at their site across the road from Beeston Hill.
She's the author of St. Croix-nicity (c), her widely read blog about art, life and St. Croix. Visit her, view more of her paintings or just leave a comment at http://bonnieluria.wordpress.com. Bonnie can be contacted at luriaslure@gmail.com or 718- 3610 for a personal tour of the studio and a private showing of her work.
