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Bonnie Marris has taken an unusual path into art; she developed her talent by portraying
animals “from the inside out.” While she was a student at Michigan State University, Bonnie
illustrated several major books. One volume she worked on was a leading expert’s
mammalogy text that contained several hundred drawings and detail studies. This massive
project attracted the attention of noted zoologist George Schaller, who invited Bonnie to
prepare the art for posters that would support his worldwide rare animal relief programs.
Beyond academic training and emotional involvement, art requires another element for which
there is no substitute: experience. Each year, Bonnie makes two major trips, and countless
smaller ones, to observe and learn about the wildlife she loves. In 1980, one such voyage
took her to Alaska, where she lived in the wilderness for six months. She recounts, “To get
into a natural environment and see the animals on their own terms is as important as knowing
the animals themselves. For instance, gray wolves on the tundra—the vast, vast tundra with
the wind and other forces of nature at their most extreme—that’s what makes them what they
are. To stand not far from a grizzly that is so overpowering, so beautiful and so large . . . to
watch it pull up a small tree with a swipe of its paw and just a few minutes later see it delicately
picking blueberries with its black lips. . . Alaska changed me; it gave me the biggest incentive
to paint and increased my interest in the predators: the cats, bears, coyotes, wolves and
foxes. They exist on so many levels. Their moods show in their eyes and we can learn so
much from them.”
animals “from the inside out.” While she was a student at Michigan State University, Bonnie
illustrated several major books. One volume she worked on was a leading expert’s
mammalogy text that contained several hundred drawings and detail studies. This massive
project attracted the attention of noted zoologist George Schaller, who invited Bonnie to
prepare the art for posters that would support his worldwide rare animal relief programs.
Beyond academic training and emotional involvement, art requires another element for which
there is no substitute: experience. Each year, Bonnie makes two major trips, and countless
smaller ones, to observe and learn about the wildlife she loves. In 1980, one such voyage
took her to Alaska, where she lived in the wilderness for six months. She recounts, “To get
into a natural environment and see the animals on their own terms is as important as knowing
the animals themselves. For instance, gray wolves on the tundra—the vast, vast tundra with
the wind and other forces of nature at their most extreme—that’s what makes them what they
are. To stand not far from a grizzly that is so overpowering, so beautiful and so large . . . to
watch it pull up a small tree with a swipe of its paw and just a few minutes later see it delicately
picking blueberries with its black lips. . . Alaska changed me; it gave me the biggest incentive
to paint and increased my interest in the predators: the cats, bears, coyotes, wolves and
foxes. They exist on so many levels. Their moods show in their eyes and we can learn so
much from them.”
Bonnie Marris
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