THE MYSTERY OF SEEING

His Name is John

Joesph's Bird Lesson

The art of DANIEL BONNELL 
(b. 1955) is found in private collections, cathedrals and churches around the world. He has an M.F.A. from the Savannah College of Art and Design.  I love his philosophy of art and how it relates to the poor he works with, esp. in schools.  And he says it so much more eloquently than I can.

He states that his painting is not about what he sees but rather what he doesn't see. His work is "the pursuit of a clear sacred visual voice that echoes back to the paintings of worship within the dark catacomb walls of Rome and the first innocent primitive icons."

Daniel studied under great artists such as Ansel Adams, Milton Glaser and Ed Ross and was mentored by a French Catholic Benedictine Monk. But he says his greatest lessons came from living in Cameroon, Ghana and Kenya and living with the homeless in New York City, as well as teaching special education students in the ghettos of Savannah, Ga.

"My painting reflects on the ultimate human need to fulfill an intrinsic longing that extends from birth to death. Simply put, it is a need to be held. My art symbolically speaks to this notion, especially with darkness (black) embracing light (color), with negative space enclosing positive space, and with texture calling out to be touched."

Seeing Shepherds

"I paint primarily on grocery bag paper with mis-tinted house paint. In my process this surface is surrogate for human skin that reflects life, especially so, when the heavy paper is saturated with pigments, oils, wax, and fragrances. The concept of using something that was once a utilitarian container also speaks to the theme of being held."

"My latest paintings follow a path wherein they are recycled back into yet another painting, as if it were sacrificing itself for a greater work. The painting is never finished, it is only at rest. Such a process is known as kenosis, or purging of the essence within each painting to create a greater work of art. This process is born out of contemplative thought and writings of the mystics. Working on modest surfaces with humble means permits this direction in a very natural manner. My paintings become a creative conductor that allows me to be held."

St. Francis

"It has been my pursuit to glean from the great painters throughout history, regardless of their personal ethos, and to extract from their gifted manner of seeing and apply it to my own visual vocabulary. This working manner has allowed for my own forms of icons to emerge as a sacred painter while not embracing the past solely but moving forward into the mystery of beauty (not limited or defined as Christian, post-Christian or non-Christian).  This pursuit of sacred painting is only born out of a contemplative life of prayer embracing the cross as the only door into the true reality of existence forsaking a worldly matrix of the kingdom of self and replacing it with the Kingdom of God."

Nativity

The Dove & the Eucharist

"I  embrace the cross and allow all my art to fall out behind it."



      "The mystery of seeing, is seeing the mystery."