ART BONANNO
crtb.com is the website of Art Bonanno
Film, Art, Writing, Music, Creative Direction, Design, Illustration.
Contributing to the adoption of renewable energy, sustainable building & conservation since 2003.
Experiments in Passivhaus-informed shipping container home design.
Art Bonanno is an American Filmmaker, Artist, Graphic Designer, Musician and Educator. A New York City native, Art won his first artwork award at the age of five and began painting at eight. He was a graffiti artist during the early days of the movement in his hometown of the Bronx from 1972 to 1975. Disturbed by the property damage from the artform he stopped writing publicly in 1975 to fully commit to pursuit of a professional art career, while referencing the powerful artistic elements of graffiti in his artwork and design through his career. During high school he began to secure his first assignments from friends and associates.
After graduating high school in 1976 Mr. Bonanno attended college in Purchase, New York for two years. While there Art began creating promotional work for the musical efforts of the Jazz Pianist Charles Blenzig. This collaboration served as Art’s introduction to record, CD, cassette covers along with live performance posters, postcards and promotion design for the broader music industry.
In 1978 Art transferred to The School of Visual Arts. In 1979 he began a series of works in a modern day Folk Art style. The crude stylistic underpinnings of the works were designed to reflect the tradition of folk art storytelling with modern themes and widen the potential for encompassing scenes without the compositional restraints of earlier photorealistic work. This work has been featured in gallery exhibitions and illustration commissions for publications including Esquire, GQ Magazine and The Village Voice. Mr. Bonanno received an Art Director’s Guild award for his work with National Lampoon. He completed the final pieces of the Folk Art series in 1990.
While at SVA he also began study of video. Art participated in experimental projects with associates including Keith Haring during his two years at SVA and was the cameraman on one of Haring’s painting performance videos. He completed his Bachelor’s degree in 1980 and was awarded the institution’s Rhodes Family Award for outstanding students.
Upon graduation from SVA Art launched his Graphic Design career while pursuing illustration assignments. Within a year he was hired for his first position as Art Director and has worked as a Designer, Illustrator, Art Director and Creative Director since. Among the hundreds of assignments he has completed Mr. Bonanno has created artwork and design for prominent recording artists at PolyGram Records / Universal Music including James Brown, John Mayall, dozens of independent musicians, book covers for Simon & Schuster and McGraw Hill, television design and graphics for Blue Man Group, multimedia design for Sony and Microsoft and worked with clients in theatre, technology, finance, advertising, travel, non-profit and civic entities.
Concurrently Art pursued Graduate study in computer graphics and animation in 1981 and mastered the first commercially available Macintosh systems.
In 1985 Art was hired as an Associate Professor, teaching courses in graphic design, illustration, and typography at Manhattanville College.
Art reinvigorated his early interest in music and co-founded a band named Fred. The outfit performed in Westchester and New York City. In 1988 he began recording his own compositions.
In 1986 he initiated a second body of artwork centered around words and phrases, incorporating influences including graffiti, hobo signs from the Great Depression, graphic design and typography. This experiment in the creation of a universal symbol language evolved via drawings, paintings, graphics, and printed works. By 1993 the symbol language project had served as a springboard for a complete transition of his fine artwork from painting and drawing to digital media. The final digital artworks, animation and video of this work were utilized in the cover and video components of his first self released CD “Circus Inside the House”. Upon limited homemade release of the disc in 1997 Art also released his first two music videos for the songs “Healing Melodies” and “Brilliance”.
In 1990 he began videotaping utilizing the (then) emerging Hi-8 technology and expanded his use of personal computers to motion graphics and video editing, creating independent short video works and motion graphics. These efforts resulted also in commercial assignments in video, television and motion graphics.
Art began traveling extensively to San Francisco and Los Angeles in 1991. During his travels there over the next three decades he collaborated with numerous creators.
In 1994 Art added new media disc-based and web design assignments to his scope. He secured the URL crtb.com in 1997 and has utilized that online destination since as the digital repository of his work. In 1999 Art joined an early phase software startup and served as the company’s Creative Director, software UI / UX Interface and icon systems Designer through 2003.
In 1998 he began work on a feature length screenplay based largely on his experiences as a young graffiti artist in the Bronx After early drafts that work was put on hold while he focused on other film and video projects.
Following various group showings of his artwork through the 1980s and 1990s, Art had the first retrospective exhibitions of the Folk Art And Symbol Language series in New York City in 1999.
Upon completing his second self released CD entitled “Sounds Like This” in 2001 Art began working on a series of six music videos in support of the project.
Art was also hired for a second Associate Professor role in 2001 at Columbia University teaching a course in Web Design, Usability and Site Architecture in the Advanced Technology Management division of the school’s Graduate Division.
By 2001 he had begun to receive assignments Producing and Directing short videos. He created a widely acclaimed seven minute short for The United States Orientation Federation. In 2001 he had also become active with Shakespeare Theatre Group Piper Theatre Productions, creating identity graphics, marketing posters, promotional videos and feature length videos of plays. While producing this work and serving on the company’s Board of Directors he became active in civic efforts and non-profits locally, at the state level in New York and in Albany. In 2003 he created a concept for a broad promotional video on a city’s downtown and waterfront development, and shot over sixty interviews with local Politicians, Developers, Officials, community and cultural leaders during the fall before editing the work in 2004. The final video was used as the core of the city’s Business Week presentation and Art was awarded with a day for his efforts on the project.
During that timeframe Art embarked on a second feature project, initially entitled “Lucki World”. The postapocalyptic black comedy was inspired by his experiences in Southern California and is centered around sustainability themes.
The project jumpstarted a significant career change for Art. He had been fascinated by the advancement of alternative energy and sustainability, creating paintings on those themes as early as 1977. His work in energy and sustainable building grew in addition to his efforts in entertainment, publishing, advertising and technology.
He met the founders of a small solar startup in 2004 while contributing services to an energy conference at The New York Institute of Technology and created the company’s initial branding, marketing and website. From 2005-2007 he collaborated on an in-depth educational video series on home biodiesel brewing with the founders of The Hudson Valley Biodiesel Co-op, and created marketing materials for other entities in biodiesel. In 2006 Art began collaborating with one of the founders of the German Passivhaus movement on educational presentations and video. At the same time he began his first experiments with low cost sustainable shipping container home design. He continued his work in the civic arena with websites and educational materials in Albany. Art also secured assignments as a Broadcast Video Editor for A&E Networks and Dan Rather Reports on HD.net. Mr. Bonanno juggled these roles in addition to serving as Creative Director and Producer for an energy technology firm beginning in late 2004.
In 2007 Mr. Bonanno’s study of energy history in support of the film project and various commercial efforts led to the compilation of an historical timeline of human energy usage. He began conceiving a series of artworks to visually augment the story of the history of energy and initiated work on a series of 32 abstract high resolution digital artworks in 2016. Those works were completed in 2017 and have been the subject of solo and group exhibitions in New York City, Miami, Westchester, Connecticut and Europe. The project has expanded to include animated versions of the works, a short video on the project alongside ongoing development of the detailed verbal timeline, which he hosts online as an evolving objective historical and educational document.
The screenplay initially entitled “Lucki World” in 2003 was changed to “ReInCarNation” in 2010. Following rewrites, attempts to produce the film independently and script readings the screenplay was completed in September 2021.
Afterwards Mr. Bonanno returned to his first screenplay project centered around his experiences during the early days of subway graffiti in the early 1970s and the birth of street art later that decade.
He work on feature films, his artwork and design continues while serving as Creative Director and business advisor to a select group of businesses.
Feature Films In Development:
ReInCarNation ™
Untitled 1970s Drama ™
Untitled 1960s Comedy Remake
Shorts:
o.mov
Blue Man Group Tubes advertising spots
Rebirth of a City
Complete Biodiesel Tutorial
Lost Gardens
On Passivhaus
YWCA Green Retrofit Assessment
Music Video:
Swing
48,000 Miles to Nowhere
Current Obsession
In The Sun
Zakopane Ride
Healing Melodies
Summer of Love
Digital and analog artwork series:
Folk Art
Symbol
Energy ™
Gallery Exhibition:
Fiend
VW Contemporary
Aqua Art Basel Miami
One Martine Gallery
Phillipse Manor Hall
Blue Door Gallery
Published Illustration:
The National Lampoon
Esquire Magazine
GQ Magazine
The New York Times
The Village Voice
Universal Music Group
Simon & Schuster
McGraw Hill
Music collections:
Circus Inside The House ™
Sounds Like This ™
Untitled PL Project
Collaborators/Clients:
A&E Networks
Aim Personnel
Albany County District Attorney
American Express
AT&T
Big World Music
Blue Man Group
Canon Corporation
Charles Blenzig
Chase Bank
Chase Music Group
Chesebrough Ponds
Citi
Click3x
Cognizant Technology Solutions
Columbia University
Commodities Corporation
Community Biofuels
Cooking Light Magazine
Deman Motor Sport
Dr. Pepper
Duffy-Mott’s
Ellipsis Arts
Eastern Biofuels
EmPower CES
The Foundation for Entrepreneurialism in the Arts
Fairfax & Sammons Architects
Fidelity Investments
Fingermatrix
FullFrame Productions
55Plus
Fox Interactive
FoxSports
FRED
GE Capital Finance
General Foods
Grey Advertising
HD.Net
Hudson Valley Biodiesel Coop
IdeaPlace
IBM
Ivanhoe Energy
ITITD
Johnson & Johnson
The Journal of Commerce
Justin Colletti
Knowhere Unlimited
Larry Wayne Studio
Lender Lead Solutions
Les Incroyables
Loser’s Lounge
Lot Polish Airlines
Madama Griffitts LLP
McGraw-Hill
Metropolitan Public Strategies
Microsoft
Miller Beer
Mitchell Fitness
Miron Agency
ModernRock.com
Morgan Stanley
MPower Software
National Westminster Bank
Nestea
Nokia
One Martine Gallery
Patricia Vonne
Pepsi-Cola
PiccoloCo
Piper Theatre Productions
PolyGram Group Distribution
PolyGram Records
PostPerfect
Raum Fur Architektur
Ray Mason Band
Robert Rosenheck
The Relaxation Company
Rhino Records
Ricoh Cameras
Sands Brothers
Santa Cruz Operations
Sara Lee
The Sauls Company
Scholastic, Inc.
Sheraton Hotels
Simon & Schuster
Soho Systems
Sony Records
Southland Corporation
Spain Tourism
Sprint
Stephen Tilly Architects
TibetanMedicine.com
Tommy Bahama
Treasure Hunt Adventures
Turner Network Television
The United Nations
3D Studios, Inc.
Universal Music Group
United States Orienteering Federation
Vested Business Brokers
Voyetra / Turtle Beach
Wings of Westwood
World Alliance Financial
Youth Education in the Arts
YMCA
YWCA
Ziff-Davis
Zippy Communications
Technical:
Brand & Marketing Strategy, Creative Direction, Project Management, Implementation.
Produce & Direct digital video, screenwriting, camera and sound acquisition, motion graphics, digital animation, editing, audio production.
Website design, site management, custom fully responsive HTML5/CSS3 framework, WordPress development.
Social media strategy & execution.
Print design & production.
Analog & Digital illustration.
MacOS, Windows, iOS certified system strategy, setup, maintenance.
contact: meetme – at – crtb.com