I want to convey the sense of the invisible underlying structure that underlies all the oppression. My goal in art is to expose that, to bring it up, and to question this concept of privilege and its invisibility--White privilege, the male privilege, the American privilege, etc., things not even noticed. I want to examine how that is maintained and how that relates to how we treat the planet.
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Lorraine Bonner is from New York. I should have recognized that fact from her accent, but she’s been in Oakland for 30 years, and her accent is fading. I interviewed her last week at the Java House, along Lakeshore Avenue in Oakland, California. Ms. Bonner is a relaxed middle age Black woman who seems unassuming and self assured; she is easy to talk to--no pretenses with her. She quickly says that she has no artistic tradition; she only began her art as a way of dealing with some of the issues she has grappled with. That was my second impression. As this interview revealed, she is a complicated woman and one can derive many impressions from her.

The Interview:

 Gibbs:
Ms. Bonner, tell us something about Lorraine Bonner.

LB:
I’m from New York. I came to Oakland in 1970; I came to escape the weather. I would like for my art to pay me. But I have a job. [She doesn’t readily say what her other work is, but as the interview progressed over three days, that other work is revealed. She is a Stanford graduate but not in Art. When she is not working her art, she is practicing medicine in Oakland.]

Gibbs:
What are you attempting to do with your art?

LB:
That’s a question that would take a long time to answer; I have been thinking a lot about that question. I haven’t been interviewed that much about my art, but I think, what I am trying to do is get at the underlying structure that holds all this oppression in place. I want people to be able to see it and make some conscious choices about it. Also, I try to analyze the institutional racism that obviously exists. 

But I also recognize that there is an incredible amount of self-destructiveness in our community. And, to me, that is as much murder as it is suicide. A brother who kills another brother is killing what he sees in the mirror. But there is more to it than that. Europeans were treating each other with this disrespect and oppression long before they encountered people of a different color

And all the laws don’t seem to make things work in this society for all people. It actually started with God—thou shall not kill. But that didn’t work. It doesn’t seem like living together makes a difference. We have been living together, marrying each other, but it does not seem to help. There seems to be something much deeper involved. Some say that it is human nature. But I question that because I have lived in situations where people don’t act this way.

My first child was born and raised in Africa for a year, and we never saw African parents beating their children. And we never saw them beating each other. When we asked them about suicide in our limited Swahili, they thought that we were being grammatically incorrect. They did not have the concept of suicide.

So I know that what we see here is not essential to a society. But in every society there is a sort of underlying structure that creates a worldview, and people of that society take on that view of the world, that way of thinking.

This society has a lot to do with control and fear and the need to control that which you fear, which makes it even scarier, so you try to control more, and it all spirals out of control, as it is doing now.

Gibbs:
How would you characterize your work? What would you call your work?

LB:
Since I have no artistic tradition, all I can say is that I started doing this stuff as a way of dealing with some of the issues I had to deal with. I would call it survival art. It is something I have to do to help me survive. 

Gibbs:
How does art affect you? Is your art for you or for an audience or both?

LB:
Initially, it was about me; there are boxes of stuff that no one has ever seen. For a while I was just letting the part of me that had suffered grieve so I could get through my own recovery process. I had covered it up to make a living. Since I had pushed much of that stuff in, that was my initial impulse for the art. Then I started to see how my own life was affected by the societal stuff that we are all permeated with. I began to explore that in art.

As I started working through my art, I became fascinated with the body and face and how they are put together; I started to delve deeper into the structure of it. From that I started studying classical figurative art because I wanted be clear.

Gibbs:
Your art seems to focus on the torso. Is that all?

LB:
No. There are other foci as well. That was just one series. I sometimes work in series and focus on other aspects. Have you looked inside the art? I work from the inside and the outside.

A particular aspect of my work that I did not consciously plan is this: it's particularly difficult for people to see inside the male torso/character in this series. Many people don’t try to look, even though the chest is clearly open and there are obvious things inside the other two torsos. I think this relates to a certain difficulty people have with not wanting to be aware of the inner life of the Black man, as a way of dehumanizing him. 

Gibbs:
Since you focus on the torso and the head, what is the distinction you make between the two?

LB:
There is no real distinction that I make. It depends on the piece I am working on and what I am doing with it.

Gibbs:
Do you realize when doing your art that there is a certain amount of unrealized knowledge in you that comes out as you work? How do you explain that?

LB:
Yes, I do. I think that there is a bigger world than we can see and feel. I try to bring myself into a clear channel so I can feel and understand that bigger picture. I try to pay attention to things; I question a lot and just try to be ready for what comes through—just to be there.

Gibbs:
Where have you exhibited?

LB:
I haven’t exhibited much. I have had some open studios, but not many exhibits. I would like to, but the venues have not been open to me. I haven’t met the right people. I have been in windows a few times.  I would be happy to exhibit. I wish my mentor, Amana Johnson, had known about some of the possibilities you cite. She has some excellent work. She also has a web site that has her work www.amanajohnson.com. She is an incredible stone sculptor who has studied with stone masters in Zimbabwe.

Gibbs:
Is she here in Oakland?

LB:
No. She is back East in graduate school.

Gibbs:
Do you sell your works? What are some selling prices?

LB:
Yes, I sell them when I can. The prices vary. Some go from $700-1,000. And there are lower prices from $300.00. I work in stone and clay; those two will vary in prices, of course.

Gibbs:
What aspect of your spiritual background influences your art?  Or is there a religious background that informs your work?

LB:
Not really. I was raised in the traditional church background. I stopped that and started becoming aware of the presence of a larger reality. Eventually I started meditating. Now I feel that there is this larger reality, which is consciousness, which is moving according to its own purpose, and I am kind of a part of that as my liver is a part of my body. I think that I am a part of that larger reality, which I conveniently call God cause it’s easy to do so.

There is a loving and life affirming intention, and there is something that has throttled that intention on this planet for human beings. I like to participate in setting it right.

Gibbs:
Is  the Broadway exhibit the range of your artistic focus?

LB:
No. Right now I am looking at the whole concept of perpetration.  That includes slavery and people doing things to other human beings that anyone can look at and say, “That is not right.”

I am not talking merely about anger, but many varied and complex emotions that are too complex to even define. I have one piece called Extracting the Perpetrator, and that is what I would like to do. I see and experience perpetration as a Black person, a woman, a short person, etc. So I want to examine that perpetration and the way we have internalized it. For example, with the piece in the window called Seven Generations, I try to show how we have internalized the experience of violent control as our ancestors suffered it. Now we express it on our own children in the form of corporal punishment. We say, "This how I was raised," or "This is the way the world is," without noticing we have internalized something very toxic, something that continues to oppress us. I want to raise this to people's awareness, to encourage all of us to look more deeply.

Gibbs:
How do you know when a work is complete?

LB:
That’s a hard one. I have a friend with a t-shirt that says, “It’s all a draft until you die.” And that’s about it. When it feels like it's over and complete, I leave it alone and say, OK.  

Gibbs:
Where are you going with your art? What do you want to become of this art?

LB:
I want to change the planet. And if I can help someone become more self-loving, that would be good. I also want to become better at it. 

What I see in my mind is never what actually comes out. I am angry; who wouldn’t be? Look at what has been done to us. Look at what has been done to the planet. Sometimes I think the planet would be better off without us, but other times I think if we can get through this phase, we could create something wonderful.

Gibbs:
What gives you inspiration?

LB:
The stones actually give me inspiration. When I go to the stone yard in Oakland, I look at the stones that I want to buy, and one stone may call out to me with something that I should make of it. That is the bulk of my inspiration. I make a connection with the stones. 

I have done some commissioned pieces; they seem to be more difficult than the inspired works. Clay pieces often come through images in meditation.

Gibbs:
Thank you for this interview. You are an impressive woman and artist; certainly everyone should see your art. If someone wants to contact you, how would they?

LB:
They can reach me at my E-mail address: winemaker11@yahoo.com; my FAX (510) 569-7949; or at my phone (510) 633-0968. []  

Final Impression

Lorraine Bonner is destined to become a significant force in local art, regardless of her lack of name recognition or newness to the art community. Her works are poetic, engaging, and pregnant with insights. They have an undeniable life and ethos that portend the artist’s greater worldview.

A brief contemplation of her works summoned in me the words of James Baldwin and other Black writers and thinkers who have measured the American social situation in a span and found it wanting. It was that foreshadowing that compelled me to interview her; and the interview confirmed the richness of her intellect and passion that blossoms in her art.

Her art is a view of America and life through eyes educated by the harsh realities they have seen. The lucidity of her thoughts and the sensitivity with which she engages her art as she explores the dilemmas set before us cannot be censored or denied: One cannot hold back the wind!

.....................        .Consider a few of her works

Interviewed by
Frank A. Jones
Republished 1/30/06

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