Those Were the Days! | Bonnie Thorne

Thorne (b. 1951), a painter who came to the discipline in her sixties, takes a loose, gestural approach, giving her work an easy lightheartedness that reflects the artist’s own effervescence. “I like to see people smile,” she says.

Thorne’s narrative paintings playfully explore past and present, reality and fantasy, referencing elements of pop culture, personal history, and nostalgia. Her work is an array of eccentric portraits, quiet interiors, busy park scenes, and famous bands reimagined. Mischievous dogs, human-like cats, and nursery rhyme reboots. Rock star tributes, coffee dates, birthday parties, and lighthearted city scenes.

Thorne, a beloved friend and thoughtful leader in the Interact studio, sees becoming an artist later in life – and cultivating a community around her creative work – as a pivotal moment. She describes the practice of painting as a sort of remedy, a steadfast routine that has elicited joy and carried her through the ups and downs of her own physical and mental health. The exhibition includes a collaboration with her friend and fellow artist, Lucy Picasso.

“Those Were the Days is named after a poem that I wrote,” she says. “It’s about me growing up with seven siblings and getting into trouble, and then having my own family and my adorable kids, and then being a grandma. The poem ends with me looking back on my past to say, ‘I can’t complain. Life’s been full.’”

To View:

Open by appointment | Visit https://calendly.com/interact-gallery to make an appointment.

View online | gallery.interactenterarts.org

Accessibility

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Image: (Detail) Bonnie Thorne, Happy Days Are Here Again, 2018, watercolor on paper, 15 x 11 inches.

Image Description: A painting featuring various fantastical characters with expressive faces. A large green, yellow, orange, and red flower grows with little faces hovering nearby or sprouting from its leaves. The orange sun smiles in the background. A purple snake squirms in a bluish pond. Little smiling fish swim nearby.