Inside the Mind of Isabella Di Bono
- The Source
- Sep 24
- 18 min read
Breath, you invisible poem!
Pure, continuous exchange
with all that is, flow and counter flow
where rhythmically I come to be.
Each time a wave that occurs just once
in a sea I discover I am.
You, innermost of oceans,
you, infinitude of space.
How many far places were once
within me. Some winds
are like my own child.
When I breathe them now, do they know me again?
Air, you silken surround,
completion and seed of my word.
"Breath", by Rainer Maria Rilke
The days until September 26th were counting down faster for Isabella. There were just 11 more evenings and afternoons to be had before the opening of her exhibition, "How many far places were once within me." This was a delicate period of laser focus, there could be no wasted time. Despite the ever-approaching deadline, Isabella Di Bono is a master of her nerves just as well as her command of the brush.
"I'm feeling stressed because I have to paint a lot," she remarked, "But its like a good stress."
Her energy was laid back after welcoming me into her upstairs studio at Vested Interest. Nesting on Tutt St. in a quiet alley tucked behind Michigan and Sample's steady traffic, the row of white cinder blocked buildings once housed the South Bend institution of Ziker's Cleaners and before it, a garment factory. Over a century of history is told through the weathered concrete and rusted sheet metal of this industrial retreat, but that history book's most recent chapter is being written by the artists and visionaries of this city today.
The walls were adorned with works both complete and still in progress for Isabella's upcoming show at the Bunbury gallery. Massive hand-stretched canvases that seemed to engulf my entire body sat leaning on the perfectly incongruent wood floors. The rustic charms of her environment were not lost on Isa, as her friends call her, and help make her creative space whole. She made note of the southward facing arched windows that flood the studio with rivers of natural sunlight. The presence of art surrounding you is palpable, still resting in its birthplace of the studio, eagerly awaiting its grand unveiling to the world. The abstract mind of Isa was locked in.
"In a way I'm expressing what's inside my mind and I'm feeling free in the canvas. The viewer doesn't get the process of making it, but in my finished pieces I want the person to feel like they're brought back to the present moment and that they themselves bring their own meaning, and their own explanations based off of their own memories— their own inner landscapes."
SOURCE: Take me through life growing up in Tegucigalpa, Honduras?
ISA: It's very different than life here, obviously. It's a very warm climate. A lot of warm people. But the political climate is not so warm. There's a lot of poverty, unfortunately, and our government is really corrupt. So growing up there I would say I grew up very sheltered from the outside world, very within our own little bubble. Because of what the political climate has caused, there's no middle class down there basically. You have the extreme poor where it's people that can't even read or write. And then you have the extreme rich, which they are very secluded in their own bubble.
So I would say growing up there's two very different worlds for sure. Besides that, it's a very gorgeous country. So you basically have a paradise year round. It's a beautiful country. People are amazing, but there's a lot of pain in the country. Not a lot of opportunities to be a young person trying to do their own thing.
SOURCE: And you moved to America when you were 18? What led you to the states?
ISA: Yeah, correct. So my dad is American and my mom's Honduran, and they both moved back to the US, that's where my mom grew up. They had me and my two younger sisters, and because of the political climate and how it looked, my parents foresaw it was gonna play out and has been playing out. I was always raised with the idea of you graduate high school and you go to the US for college and you stay in the US. And that's the case for anyone that can do it, whether it's the US, a lot of people go to Canada, a lot of people go to Europe... It's really unfortunate, but if you can leave, you leave.
So that's what led me to the US and both my two younger sisters are in the U.S. And yeah, college led me here, but the idea of moving here and staying in the U.S. was drilled in me since I was a little girl.
SOURCE: Being a graduate of Notre Dame, what was the student experience like for you?
ISA: It was a very welcoming experience. Definitely some culture shock even though I was raised by an American dad. And I was raised bilingual and everything, it was still a culture shock. But Notre Dame does a really good job with their undergrads to make them feel welcome, make them feel like they have support, And I had the amazing luck to go to a university with such a tight Latino community, which that made made my experience so great. When I graduated I had friends from almost every Latin American country, and we all go through the same pain of trying to find a home away from our home so we become each other's home and we become a family. So in that sense it was a really welcoming experience.
SOURCE: From the deepest catacombs of your mind, what is your earliest creative memory? Could be as simple as scribbling as a toddler.
ISA: This is a funny one, actually. Thinking back, I think this might come with a little trauma [chuckles] I don't know how old I was, I must have been... definitely younger than... seven years old, maybe five or so. I remember drawing all over the walls in my house. And I remember it was pencil and my memory is probably incorrect because you know how memories become distorted as you get older. But my mom was a workaholic, she worked really hard and my dad as well so they weren't home a lot. And I remember drawing across the whole house with a pencil. And I was so proud of what I had done. And I remember going to my mom, super excited, when she got home from work to show her what I had done. She was so pissed.
SOURCE: That was your first exhibition.
ISA: Yeah and its lost in my memory because oh god my mom made me wash that off immediately. I'd say that's my earliest memory.
I would compare it to like making jazz music where you're not planning it. You start with an idea, you start with a beat, and then it develops as you're working on it.
SOURCE: How did you develop your distinctive style? On your website you use the term "mental landscapes" and how they "immerse the viewer in a state of presence." How did you arrive at this philosophy?
ISA: It started pretty early on. There was this after school art class I would go to. Well it wasn't really an art class, it was this amazing artist, this woman that she opened up her home to anyone that wanted to learn art. And I would go to her house after school and you learn the basics; the color wheel, how to draw, something realistic. And then I came across a an art book and I learned about Pollock and Basquiat. Those are my two first introductions to abstract art. I asked her— Misandra is her name— I would say she was my first art mentor, and I asked her if I could maybe try some abstract things. And She gave me the creative freedom to do it, and as soon as I did it was an instant click. I felt so free. I felt alive doing it. And I think a lot of it came from my parents were really strict and society in Honduras, at least the bubble I grew up in, is very close-minded and very religious. I've always been a rebel at heart.
So through abstract art I found freedom. And I found like, "Holy shit, I can do whatever I want and make it look beautiful." I was so lucky that my art teacher pushed it. She wasn't like, "No, you need to paint trees or whatever". She pushed me into it, so I leaned in. That's how I started to develop that visual language of abstract art. The "presence" comes for me in the process of making it. You have to be very present in the moment. I would compare it to like making jazz music where you're not planning it. You start with an idea, you start with a beat, and then it develops as you're working on it.
So that's where that came from, the "mental landscape", in a way I'm expressing what's inside my mind and I'm feeling free in the canvas. And you know the viewer doesn't get the process of making it, obviously, but in my finished pieces I want the person to feel like they're brought back to the present moment and that they themselves bring their own meaning and their own explanations based off of their own memories, their own inner landscapes.
SOURCE: So you invite the viewer to project some of their own experience into your work?
ISA: Absolutely.
SOURCE: I know you mentioned Pollock and Basquiat, what would you say are some of your other foundational influences in your work, whether it be from artists or even just media you take in?
ISA: Other abstract artists like Helen Frankenthaler. She was a post World War II female artists and she did very big abstract paintings. Another one is Joan Mitchell, she did very big abstract paintings. You know, these women that really weren't given a lot of attention back then and now they are. I mean, their work is just so freeing. I would say nature is a huge influence.
SOURCE: What connects you to nature so deeply that it plays such a vital part in your work?
ISA: I think it's hard not to be inspired by nature when you grow up in a place like Honduras. I was surrounded by the most beautiful nature year-round, and it's kind of hard not to be inspired by that. And I think we all feel it when we go out in nature. There's something about it that feels so grounding and it kind of reminds us of our mortality, it reminds us of how special life is, even despite all the horrible things that are happening in the world right now. I think we can all agree that when we go out in nature, it really reminds us of our human experience. And I've always been inspired by that. I definitely miss— I mean I love South Bend— but I miss living in a very beautiful place like Honduras.
So that definitely comes through. This is the first collection where I'm drawing more directly from nature, where it's not just the feeling of being present, but I'm actually trying to bring in direct visual language with the leaves and the flowers and trees. I'm trying to bring that in,
mix it with the abstract.
SOURCE: How do you feel about social media's role in the current state of art?
ISA: It can serve different purposes I think for me personally. Inspiration; I follow as many artists as I can, not even studio artists. I love following photographers that make like that make more artistic photography, other painters, sculptors. I think social media for me has played a big role in terms of getting inspiration and seeing what other artists are doing and seeing what museums are doing. Following curators as well has been huge because at the end of the day, curators are the ones that will decide who's in a show. So with social media I've learned a lot about what's being shown nationwide in following curators, following museums, galleries.
And then on the opposite end is sharing and my work and my process. Treating it like a diary even though it's a hard habit to adopt when you're making the art and then remembering like, "okay, I have to set the camera right now to film myself doing this and then editing everything to post it." But I think it's become indispensable. Now all artists have something to say and social media is a great place to share it. It's free. And even if you don't have a lot of followers, just put what you're doing out there. And 10, 15 years from now you'll be able to look back and see what you did in the past.
SOURCE: What's your favorite exhibition that you've done so far and why?
ISA: I would say my thesis when I graduated Notre Dame. The title was "Between the Whole and the Parts" and that was really harnessing in on abstract art and the process of making abstract art. Those pieces in that show— you can really get lost in them, and see how every layer interacts with every other layer and creates like an abstract landscape. It's my favorite show because I would say, besides this one that I'm about to have, that one was the last time I really put everything into making those pieces. And that was the last time that I had so much time to focus on my artwork. Which when you graduate you realize that's not reality. And it's really hard to be a creative and try to live as a creative and be able to pay the bills and stay true to yourself as an artist. You know, life gets in the way, shit gets in the way. And that was the last time where I really created fully for the purpose of creating. So I would say that was my favorite show. I've had other shows that I've liked, but they've been mostly group shows.
SOURCE: Take me through the meaning of your upcoming show's title "How Many Far Places Were Once Within Me"
ISA: So that's actually from a poem. This poet, I'm going to butcher his name, Rainer Maria Rilke. His poetry touches a lot on ecology and our human experience with nature. I was trying to find a title that really communicated our multiplicities that we have within ourselves. After I graduated reality hit me like a bitch slap. To learn how to be an adult in today's world, and how to be a creative in today's world, I think that's a problem that all young adults have always felt. But right now I feel like we're all going through this like, "the world is burning, who am I in this world? How do I kind of define who I am in the world we're living in right now?"
So that title, it's a line from a poem and I can share the poem with you. I connected with it because I want to portray all of the inner selves that we've had within us at some point in the past, and in the present, and how all those different selves contribute to who we are now. For me personally moving from another country, at one point living close to my family, now I'm not close to my family. Completely different country, different people. I think that's relevant to anyone, even if you don't move countries. We all experience different selves throughout life and it's exciting to think about how many more selves we're gonna be. And then when we get old, you know, you look back. I read journals when I was in high school and I feel like that was a completely different person than who I am now.
"I want this collection to show how many places, how many people, how many moments was I at some point that one day we're so true to who I am, and now they're so far away. But they're all still who we are."
SOURCE: What was that moment like when you decided to pursue art full-time as a career?
ISA: It was a lot of fear. I think a lot of delusion, naive maybe in a way, delusions of how the world works. I But I think you need a little bit of that with any creative pursuit and really with any entrepreneurial pursuit, like you got to have a little delusion because there's so many reasons why it's not going to work. And so when I decided to do that it was super scary, but the idea of being locked into a nine to five was way more terrifying. And my senior year I sold a couple pieces and I just kind of clung to that. I was like, "Okay, if I already found three people that bought an art piece, I'm sure I can find more people that like my work enough to pay money for them."
It was a really hard moment, it was hard for my family as well. I come from a very business-oriented family. They were very confused by my decision. And I don't know, I've always been a person that walks to the beat of their own drum. However, I have learned in the process that living solely off of selling art pieces is not that easy. And living as an artist, it never gets easier. It's always scary. I mean, starting every month with you don't know how much money you're gonna bring in. It's really hard to plan ahead financially, so I've done other creative pursuits to kind of complement that. And so the art doesn't suffer because once you start living off of your art, it's very easy for the art to change. You're like, "I want to paint this, but this is not going to sell, so I'm not going to paint this. I'll do this that everyone likes." So that started to happen and I reflected, and I didn't want my art to suffer from that. So that's where I picked up photography and other freelance creative pursuits.
SOURCE: How did your relationship with the Bunbury Gallery blossom?
ISA: Well Bunbury Gallery is new, they opened up in December. But I met the owner in 2021 in my first job out of college. I got a part-time gig at the Frame Factory and I learned how to frame artwork. I wanted something that was still connected with art but part-time, something that would let me create. So I met the owner [of Bunbury Gallery] there, Guy, and we became good friends. Beginning of last year he told me about his idea to open up a gallery, and he wanted to represent me here in South Bend and I was all in. I really love what they're doing. I love that there's a legit gallery in town. Beautiful location. There's other nice galleries in town, there's Highland [Studio and Gallery] that focuses on ceramic art and it's cool to see what they've done with paint, with 2D art.
So that's how that relationship blossomed, and I'm super excited to be their second solo show ever.
I think to be able to be creative is our gift as humans
SOURCE: How about Vested Interest, the very studio space we're sitting in, how did that come to be?
ISA: I was looking for studio spaces and a local friend told me that they had driven by and there was a sign that said "studio space is available. So I reached out, I came to visit and it was an instant click. I mean just the space, like it's so spacious in here, and I make very big paintings. I think the space one creates in is very important.
SOURCE: In just three words, how would you describe your work?
ISA: I would say... freeing, optimistic, and reflective.
SOURCE: What is one album you cannot live without?
ISA: Señor Loop, they're this small Panamanian band, and they have this one album it's called Leña Que Prende Madera. And it means..... "kindle that sparks wood," I guess that would be the translation that makes the most sense. I love that album. I always go back to it whenever I need to have that feel good moment.
SOURCE: Do you paint to music or ever just paint in silence?
ISA: ALWAYS to music, never in silence.
SOURCE: What's one film you can't live without?
ISA: I don't know if I can answer that, you're asking me really hard questions. [chuckles] I love movies, I love horror.
SOURCE: Paranormal horror, gore horror?
ISA: All of it. Mostly like a psychological thrill, I'll watch any horror movie. The Shining is a beautiful movie, I love Hereditary, it's a scary one, The Witch.
SOURCE: What draws you to horror?
ISA: Maybe it's just like the anxiety, I'm a very anxious person. I think something about horror movies just releases that anxiety for me.
SOURCE: A cathartic experience?
ISA: Yeah, after a horror movie you're like, "It's DONE."
I love Tarantino. Inglorious Bastards is really good, Kill Bill One and Two, the second one is just as good as the first one, I think. Reservoir Dogs.
SOURCE: I like what I'm hearing [sly smirk].
What is your favorite piece that you've ever made?
ISA: It's called "Between the Whole and the Parts." It was the same title as my thesis show. Okay. It's actually the same size. That piece just clicked. You're a creative, you understand how you can work on so many things and creative pursuits and then there's something that just clicks. It doesn't happen often, there's a lot of really good pieces that you make but all of a sudden there's like one that just it just works. And this piece it wasn't one that I worked the most on, but something about it just clicks, it's a feeling. It's a very pink piece, which actually I'm not a very girly girl. I think it's probably the only pink piece I've made. But it just flows really nicely and the energy in that piece. It's not here I actually sold it, I saw it in a gallery down in Guatemala and that was the first piece that I sold where I don't know who it was sold to, which was a big milestone in my career as an artist.
SOURCE: What is your favorite piece that you've ever sold?
ISA: I would say that one— actually there's a runner up, and it's one that's very different. It's not abstract, it's a coffee tree, a huge coffee tree that I made. And it was actually a failed commission. This person I know commissioned it, they wanted a huge coffee-inspired piece for their coffee bar in their house. And I'd never done a piece like that. I hadn't done a lot of commissions in my life, and that's very nerve-wracking. When someone's willing to pay you a lot of money for an art piece, there's a lot of imposter syndrome that goes into it.
I started working on it, and they didn't really like how it was turning out. So I just scratched it and it was all cool. I said, "You know, for both of our sakes, let's just not continue with this project. I kept that piece, and then two years later I finished it. That's another piece that just worked. It was very different, you know, it's literally this huge coffee tree. I didn't even post it, I made a little reel of my studio and that painting was in the background hung up. And this woman that followed me DMed me like, "Hey, what's that piece in the background of your story?' And I was like, "What, this?" And she was like, "Yeah I want that for my house."
So that went into a very beautiful, historic home in Hyde Park in Chicago. So I would say that was my favorite piece I've sold. And it sold for 4x the amount that it was originally commissioned for.
SOURCE: What's your proudest moment as an artist?
ISA: I would say that would be up there for sure. I think anytime someone is willing to give you money for your artwork is a very validating moment. Even though when I create I try to not think about that, which is why I've started all these other pursuits to live off of. And for me, my art is to express my inner world more than anything. But when someone pays you to put that little part of your inner world on their walls and live with it every day, that's super validating— more so than the money itself. It's just the fact that someone's willing, because money at the end of the day equals the amount of time you've put into making that money,
so for someone to want to trade that for a your inner world— that's huge. Especially because being an artist, it's really hard. There's been a lot of months where I haven't seen a dollar come in and you can't let that bring you down. You can't stop creating, even though a lot of times it's so tempting to just go get a 9 to 5. But you just have to keep on going.
SOURCE: What advice would you give to little Isabella in the past, or younger creatives out there?
ISA: I think the cliché advice is like keep on doing what you're doing, which I think there's a lot of truth to that. I think there's a lot of amazing artists that stop making art because it's scary. But you can't forget, I can't forget, that life doesn't allow anyone to be able to be to pursue your creative passions. I think I would say do it regardless, even if you don't necessarily want to do it as a career. Because being an artist and being an artist as a career are two very different things. And I would say lean into your creative interests forgetting about the career aspect to it, more so as I'm trying to express my inner world through X or Y creative pursuit. Whether it's drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, filmmaking, music.
I think to be able to be creative is our gift as humans, and I would say just lean into it. Don't be scared to try a new things, especially as kids. That's what I would say to any kid is make art, whatever that means to you.
SOURCE: If you could put somebody on to one Honduran dish, what would it be?
ISA: Baleadas. It's gonna sound very basic but It's amazing. It's a flour tortilla (best if it's homemade) and then refried beans (best if it's homemade), it's all about the quality of the ingredients, they all have to be homemade. So flour tortilla with refried beans, Honduran cheese, and that's the way I eat it. It's very basic, but then some people will put eggs and avocado into it. It's fire.
SOURCE: So what's next for Isabella?
ISA: I'm trying to figure that out myself. I think kind of my blessing and my curse is that I don't plan things like my life. I couldn't tell you if I have a five-year plan or even a one-year plan. Which goes on with my creative process that I go with the feeling. And I think what's next is to keep on doing what I'm doing. This is the first year for me that all of my creative pursuits are kind of coming together, and I'm actually being able to live off of them comfortably. This is the first year that I've really gotten a groove of what it's like to be a freelance creative. So what's next for me is to just keep on riding that wave. And now with this amazing studio— which I moved into Back in June, keep on making more art, more big pieces, which I hadn't been able to make before I moved into the studio. Keep on expressing, expressing my inner world.
The shout outs
ISA: I would like to shout out to the artist community in South Bend, I think we're all doing an amazing job getting South Bend alive. All the musicians in town, all the small businesses, all the small food businesses in town. I think all the creatives in town can agree that it's tough, especially in today's world. It's really tough. So that's my shout out, keep on pushing through. I think it's really important that we keep on supporting each other and connecting with each other. And I see a bright future for the South Bend artist community and creative community. I think it's really up and coming, and it's really cool to be a part of it.
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