Since she was a child, Bonnie Connelly loved to draw and paint. Connelly especially loved playing with color and states that she was largely intrigued by the work of the Abstract Expressionists. She was most impressed, in particular, by Helen Frankenthaler and greatly admired the way the expressive artist used and blended soft colors together. As time progressed, Connelly began to do abstract works of her own, throughly enjoying the freedom that this style allowed her.
Roughly 20 years ago, Connelly showed her work to her colleague in the Miller Place School District, Julia Vogel. Vogel, a previous Reboli Center Feature Artisan of the Month, teacher and talented ceramist who runs The Brick Ceramic School and Gallery in Saint James, praised Connelly’s designs and suggested she try them on silk scarves. Moved by her trusted colleague’s suggestion, Connelly found a new calling in scarf design and started creating her vibrant and unique hand-painted pieces.
Connelly began shifting her focus from large-scale abstract paintings, in which one piece often took many days to complete, to scarves, which by their nature were more concise but also more unforgiving. The artisan shared with us that the process of creating one of her hand-painted silk scarves allows the completed project to emerge much more quickly than paintings on canvas, but once set the silk cannot be reworked. So what you get is what you get and as she shared, this means that from time to time certain scarves meet their end in places other than around ones’ neck.
Since Connelly was already fond of wearing scarves for the elegance they can bring to any attire, she conveniently became a walking advertisement for her own work. She soon enjoyed success selling her silk creations in her local community after receiving much positive feedback. “This was wonderful because it allowed me to do something that I loved and could easily share with others,” said Connelly, “painting these scarves was always something I viewed as an avocation rather then as a business and therefore I sell them at little above cost.”
Bonnie Connelly and her studio are based in Setauket, NY and has known the Reboli family for several years. “I, like all who have known Joe Reboli, feel his loss to the art community. I am greatly impressed with the wonderful work that the Reboli Center has done over the past several years and I am greatly honored to have my work shown by the Center,” she expressed.
Bonnie Connelly’s beautiful, silk scarves are each one-of-a-kind due to the nature in which they are created. We are honored to have a stunning collection available for public viewing and purchase throughout the month of January and beyond at The Reboli Center. As always, The Reboli Center has no admission fee and no reservations are required to visit during our regular business hours.