Paul Bonelli Personal Work
These are all woodcut prints, my primary medium. Black and white images are standard relief woodcuts, while color images are hand colored, in the tradition of Europe in the middle ages, using watercolor paints. Click on images to enlarge them.
A History of Art shows many of the things that inspired me to be an artist and influenced the art that followed. The structure borrows from Bruegel's Tower of Babel paintings, while the items all were things from my life.
These next four are from a series called Ecclesiastes, a visual adaptation of the Old Testament book, meant to carry the same effect as reading the original text, but through more contemporary imagery.
These next four are from a series called Everyman, based on my reading of Butler's Lives of the Saints, an authoritative work that collects biographical information about every saint recognized by the Catholic Church, past or present. The dates are the feast days, how the books (four volumes) are organized. The idea was less about religion, and more to show the relationships between high and low, sacred and profane, etc. Ongoing series, with about 75 done so far.
The Fourth of July, installed at the Belmar Arts Council. One woodcut for each day for a year (July 4, 1993 to July 4, 1994), each about something that happened that day in my life. 366 prints total. Each individual print is about 8" x 5", dimensions of the whole set varies with the location.
Above and below, two large woodcut prints telling multiple stories. Top, A New Year for America, has an image for each of the 50 states, plus a few national stories, that took place within a month before and after New Year's Day, 2002. A portrait of America. Below, Employee, a fictional landscape depicting some of the many jobs I have done to earn a living. Each 24" x 36".
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