Brisbane Artist Series: Bonnie Hislop

Welcome to the second installment of the Brisbane artist series, which began with Charlotte Tegan. As this series – along with a forthcoming Gold Coast artist series – grows, I hope that they paint a vivid portrait of the diverse artistic talent in South East Queensland. 

Bonnie Hislop reminds me of an artistic superhero, a Brisbane office girl by day, she morphs into a maker of things by night. Disloyal to one particular medium, this largely self-taught artist works across ceramics and illustration. Self-described as working in ‘low-brow’ art, Bonnie chooses not to concern herself with discovering her soul or answering life’s great questions through art. Instead, each piece is a creative droplet from her imagination: they are creations made from enjoyment for enjoyment.

Bonnie Hislop, ‘”Dreamer”, colour pencil on paper. Image courtesy of the artist.

Dating to 2013 when she was developing her style, Bonnie’s illustrations are an intriguing mix of light and dark. They are whimsical and otherworldly; yet allude to a deeper sense of emotional exploration. Working in mostly colour pencil drawings, she explored notions of societal and gender norms, femininity, beauty, imperfections and insecurity. Her influences included real-life experiences, fashion and social trends, representations of beauty in the media and literature, surrealism and 80’s cult fantasy cinema. There are also traces of mythology and folklore in her marks.

Her series of illustrations, aptly titled Portraits of people in my head, invoke a cast of imaginary worlds and characters. Each piece is character driven and in most cases Bonnie wrote stories to go with them, told from the perspective of the person in the story. In this way, the process was an essential element of Bonnie’s illustration practice: she could only plan so far before her characters took over and decided the outcome for themselves:

Bonnie Hislop, “Lunar”, colour pencil on paper. Image courtesy of the artist.

I go through phases. Like the moon, except my phases mostly involve food. The way it started is I would mourn the end of a wonderful meal, before I had even started. So I devised a plan to combat this. I order the same meal—whether it be for breakfast, lunch or dinner—until I get sick of it or encounter a bad one. Last week my obsession was strawberry milkshakes. That ended when I ran out of strawberries, this was my ‘Waning crescent phase’. The sushi-third-quarter phase often stops abruptly if I accidentally get a mouthful of wasabi. The full moon phase involves a lot of pizza. And Ice cream. And cake. You get the idea. The new moon is my diet phase when I’m feeling guilty about my culinary adventures. And when I’ve got that out of my system it starts over again.

Meant to be humorous and light-hearted, these stories are an antidote to the melancholy nature of their characters. They help to balance the dark aspects of the works: the haunting expressions and allusions to deeper emotional states. However, Bonnie doesn’t like to dwell on the dark parts, preferring not to make her audience feel disturbed or uncomfortable. In this sense, she may hide the unsettling meaning behind a particular work to allow her audience to interpret it more positively if they choose.

Top step: Pugly, Deidre. Bottom Step: Bacon, Daphne, Pepper. Image courtesy of the artist.

Lately Bonnie’s practice has turned to ceramics, particularly hand-built and functional vessels such as planter pots. Eschewing formal training, Bonnie has enjoyed a process of self-teaching, mentorship and attending workshops. She did not come to this medium alone, however, as she received inspiration from her mother’s own ceramic pursuits. What started as a hobby soon became a small business and by the time Bonnie was 13, her family home was equipped with a ceramic studio. Once she had grasped the basics, Bonnie was given free reign and encouraged to develop her own style and product. This has resulted in, among other pieces, a delightful range of cat-and-dog-inspired planters. The former of which is aptly titled “CAcTus”. Each piece is individually named, numbered, one of a kind and immensely treasurable.

Bonnie Hislop, Clem – “CAcTus”(2014), porcelain planter. Image courtesy of the artist.

Bonnie Hislop, Ziggy – “CAcTus” (2015), porcelain planter. Image courtesy of the artist.

When asked about her future practice and where she sees herself going, Bonnie responded with an answer typical to many artists, she wants more time. The sacrifice she makes for refusing to ‘starve for her art’ and to work full time – is time. To that end, she hopes to complete an artist residency or to just be able to dedicate a decent amount of time developing her craft. I, for one, hope that Bonnie gets her wish.