Deborah Bonar is from the Yamatji and Gidja peoples of Western Australia. She was born in Sale, Victoria, in 1974 as her father who was in the Royal Australian Air Force was based there at the time. Due to her father’s occupation the Mills family (Mills being Bonar’s maiden name) was stationed at various Air Force bases including Perth, Townsville and in Penang and Butterworth in Malaysia. The family returned to Perth permanently in 1986.
Bonar had enjoyed drawing and painting as a child, which lead her to study graphic design as a young woman. She is a qualified graphic designer who studied for a Certificate of Art and Design in 1992 at the Central Metropolitan College of TAFE and an Advanced Certificate of Art and Design in 1993 at Midlands Regional College of TAFE. In 1997 she returned to Central Metropolitan to study for a Diploma of Arts in Graphic Design.
Bonar has worked within the printing and graphic design industry since 1998. She established her own graphic design business, Scribblebark Design, in 2003. She has been commissioned by the Western Australian Department of Health to design the image Duality for their educational promotion of Aboriginal Sexual Health in Western Australia as well as designing culturally appropriate Aboriginal images for BreastScreen WA and the Department of Justice. She has also produced a range of greeting cards.
Her fine-art works of digital prints and intensely coloured synthetic polymer on canvas are inspired by wildflowers, animals, plants, native seeds and nuts. These themes help connect her to the land and ocean of her people in the Mid West and East Kimberley regions of Western Australia. In 2006 she staged her first solo show, 'The Magic of Nature’ at the Blend(er) Art Gallery in Joondalup where she displayed her paintings, digital prints and ink drawings. Also in 2006 her digital print Lily’s Country was accepted as a finalist in the 23rd Telstra Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory in Darwin.
In 2009 Bonar enrolled in a Certificate III in Visual Arts and Contemporary Craft at the Kidogo Institute in Fremantle, presented by teacher, Joanna Robertson, and various well-known Western Australian artists.
- Writers:
- Allas, Tess
- Date written:
- 2009
- Last updated:
- 2011
