Isabel Bonilla Artist Biography

Isabel Bonilla is a multidisciplinary artist working between Delaware and Costa Rica. She earned a BFA in Painting and a BFA in Printmaking from Kutztown University. Her work has been selected for juried exhibitions including ‘Of Land & Longing: Celebrating Landscape in Contemporary Art’ curated by Visionary Art Collective and Create! Magazine, ‘Mother Nature’ hosted by the Women’s Caucus for Art of Greater Washington DC, and ‘WILD’ at Jen Tough Gallery.

Statement

My latest artwork repurposes fast-fashion jeans bought in thrift stores. I cut and tear strips of the denim fabric and then pull threads to manipulate the level of fray along the edges. By layering the various pieces and then wrapping them taut around a stretcher, I create oceanscapes with a tactile and dimensional quality. 

From a lifelong habit of cutting off the bottoms of my jeans to fit my height, I made the connection that frayed denim resembled the spume of waves. This, coupled with learning about poor sustainability practices in the fashion industry, drastically shifted my perspectives on clothing consumption. Producing just one pair of jeans can use up to 10,000 liters of water, not to mention the high energy and chemical cost of the process, all for the average person to wear an article of clothing only seven times before getting rid of it. The US ranks as one of the top nations producing fashion waste, with tons of its unwanted clothing being sent off to other countries each year. Where I’m based in Costa Rica, these items end up in secondhand shops called 'tiendas Americanas' (American stores). By purchasing discarded jeans and upcycling them into art, I give the material a new life and aim to break the cycle of production to landfill. By intentionally using denim to make landscapes of the natural resource utilized to create it, I simultaneously remind viewers of the beauty of our environment as well as what we stand to lose if we fail to preserve it.