Artwork copyright Bonnie Bronson. Photo courtesy of the artist, 1979.

Artwork copyright Bonnie Bronson. Photo courtesy of the artist, 1979.

Artwork copyright Bonnie Bronson. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2015.

Artwork copyright Bonnie Bronson. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2015.

Artwork copyright Bonnie Bronson. Original 1981 installation. Photo courtesy of the artist (black and white photo).

Deerfield, 1979

Bonnie Bronson
American (born 1940, died 1990)

Location: Chimacum Elementary School, Chimacum

About the Artwork

Bonnie Bronson’s steel wall sculpture explores structure and symmetry. She created a textured surface on the seven unique quadrilateral shapes instead of adding color. The artwork is balanced yet asymmetrical. It has an organic element to it but is made of sharp angles, straight lines, and man-made metal. It looks flat but is all slightly angled surfaces when we look more closely.

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Chimacum School District.

About the Artist

Born in Portland, Bronson studied at the University of Kansas, University of Oregon, and graduated from the Portland Art Museum School (now PNCA, Pacific Northwest College of Art) by the age of 21. She and her husband, sculptor Lee Kelly, lived and worked on a former dairy farm in Oregon City, Northwestern Oregon. She died in a mountaineering accident at age 50. Since 1992, the Bonnie Bronson Fellowship honors a Pacific Northwest artist each year, with an emphasis on sculptors and women artists. In 2011, the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon, organized a retrospective exhibition of Bronson's art.