Bonnie Smith, textile artist: A San Jose artist, Bonnie Smith’s art has been honored with the NICHE Award in both 2009 and 2015, and her fiber artwork, “Contemplate,” was juried into Quilt National and 9th Quilt Nihon. Her “Swimming Upstream” series, created after a work-related injury forced her into a wheelchair and aquatic physical therapy, was honored in 2013 by Voters Injured at Work. She began her artistic life by taking a two-day quiltmaking class and soon discovered textile arts to be an outlet for self-expression and storytelling. “What I find interesting about art is that it leads you in a direction,” she said.
Bonnie Smith
