Portraits: Bonnie Gale, Willow Artist

Bonnie Gale is a willow basketmaker and grower living in New York state, just south of Syracuse. She is most known for her living willow structures which are beautifully artistic pieces for private and public spaces.

“If you ask me what I do, it’s all about spatial containment definition and it’s all with this plant material called willow…”

The process of creating one of her larger structures begins the same as any project, with planning. She creates a model that she and her helpers can work off of to make the idea come to life using the live trees.

“There’s always design issues that you solve right there, right on the site…”

Bonnie was born in England and throughout her schooling, she was most fascinated by geography. She says that it’s always been about space for her.

“I love space….space is how I do things.”

Working with the willow has been both rewarding and extremely challenging. As an artist, she could have chosen to work with any other material, but the willow is, as she describes beautiful but functional. 

“I’m actually working with a live material so there’s a whole level of complexity there…”

The willow structures she creates are strong but invoke a sense of wonder and, ultimately, beauty. 

For more information about Bonnie, visit her website. Learn more about the Living Willow structures from the website, here.

The videographer for this film is Leon Guanzon.

Edited by Laura Christian.