Betty Bonawitz

Creative Photography and Clay

I started my life on a small farm near New Underwood, South Dakota.  I was like an only child since my sisters were older than me.  I entertained myself with mud pies, sticks, rocks and especially prairie flowers and grasses.  We moved to Rapid City near the Black Hills in my teen years where I still live today.  I attended art classes in high school and hoped for art school, but married instead.  A few clay classes and water color classes with John Crane (a well-known Black Hills area artist) helped along the way.  With four children to keep me busy, my creative side turned to flower arranging and a job.  After being a florist for six years, my sister Arlene, a friend Colleen and I went into business together.  We built a silk flower business for wedding flowers as well as local native dried floral arrangements into a mail order business that shipped all over the world.  Eventually we included working with brides for their entire wedding plans.  After my sister retired I kept the business and expanded into fresh flowers.  During this time, I taught adult education classes in floral arrangements.  After thirty years in business, I sold the shop and turned my creative side to photography and clay.  I had received many awards for my photography so this was a special place for me to start as an artist and build a connection with people that were interested in owning my work.  I added clay creations and poetry to go with my photography.  Watching all of this take on my own designs has been a wonderful way to go from creative child to creative adult.