By Macerio Clark
The Seattle Medium
Art is a form of expression through creativity and that is made to tell a story. Cal Bonner, owner of Visions Ink located in Burien, WA, is more than a tattoo artist. Ever since the opening of his shop, Bonner has done tattoos for many celebrities including Lil Mosey. He also has done original art pieces for celebrities like Branden Jackson, Gucci Mane, Nipsey Hussle and Ceaser from the popular tv show Black Ink.
Bonner has been an artistic mind since he was in elementary school. While in the fourth grade, Bonner took a drawing that one of his friends had done on a character from the video game Mortal Kombat. He showed the art to his uncle and his uncle was so impressed that he asked Bonner to do the same drawing for him. Bonner traced over the photo and showed his uncle and after realizing that Bonner had lied about drawing the original piece of art his uncle ordered him to do twenty more drawings of the same character. Bonner adhered to the request and fell in love with art in the process.
However, it wasn’t until he suffered a leg injury during his freshman year in college did Bonner take his passion for art beyond just a leisure time hobby. Bonner, who was on a basketball scholarship at Central Arizona College, fractured his shin during a scrimmage that sidelines him for the season. But the season ending injury helped Bonner’s artistic skills blossom and take his life into a new direction.
“The week before my first game during a scrimmaged I dunked and came down wrong and fractured my shin,” recalled Bonner in an interview with The Seattle Medium. “I fell into depression because they told me I couldn’t play the whole season.”
According to Bonner, he spent a lot of time drawing when his roommate took notice of his talent and encouraged him to pursue tattooing as a venue to showcase his artistic skills.
“I was just drawing cartoon characters with the devil hanging on my back holding my heart… my roommate told me to challenge my art into tattoos and he was the first person that brought that up to me,” said Bonner.
He would take on his roommate’s challenge and use him as his first client. After the completion of his first tattoo, Bonner would gain the attention of other students at his school requesting he tattoo them as well.
After receiving his Associates Degree in business/marketing, Bonner then went to York College in Nebraska. Shortly after Bonner finished school at York he moved back to Seattle and opened up his tattoo shop in March of 2017.
In December, Margo Jones, Director of Africatown Midtown Center Project, contacted Bonner about doing a mural for the project. However, Jones needed a quick turnaround on the project. Although he was already engaged in previously commissioned projects, including a painting for rapper Dave East, Bonner agreed to do the project on short notice.
According to Africatown’s website, Bonner and Jones discussed ideas for the mural and came to the agreement on making the mural with athletes and other artist that have inspired Bonner and his art. Bonner put together a piece that included the likes of Brandon Roy, Peyton Siva, Bruce Lee and others.
However, the piece that many feel should have been received with open arms by the community has stirred up controversy about who should’ve been on there as well as who shouldn’t have been on there. One point of contention from some members of the community was the lack of women represented on Bonner’s mural. However, Bonner maintains that the piece was about who inspired him and was not meant as a comprehensive list of who’s who from the Central Area. In addition, Boner explains that he has not been personally inspired by many women out side of his mother and his aunt.
Bonner feels that the women who could’ve been on the mural weren’t an inspiration to him as was his mother and aunt were.
“I wasn’t inspired by too many women… that wouldn’t be fair to me [as an artist] that’s not authentic, that’s not who I am,” says Bonner.
Bonner also said that he would add more women to the mural if he is given the opportunity to add more pieces to the mural, which currently takes up the space of two full canvases.
In addition, Bonner, who was raised in the Central Area, is trying to overcome the negativity of people claiming that he is either not from the Central District or possibly affiliated with a gang. Neither of which, according to Bonner, are true.
“I have been trying to cancel out the noise but it’s hard because they’re messing up opportunities for me,” says Bonner. “They think I’m gang related because people were saying the hood this and the hood that… that’s not what I did it for I did it for myself.”
“They (people) think because I’m not on the block that I’m not from the CD (Central District),” says Bonner. “That’s like stereotyping what the Central District is and I don’t think the Central District is full of dope dealers and gang bangers, there’s other people that look past that and make their life better.”
With the negative feedback and controversy over the mural, Bonner said that is has affected his continuation on the project. He says that there may be an opportunity to add people from the 1960s – 1980s who were influential in the Central District to the bottom of the mural, and for people who have passed away to be added to the top of the mural with clouds and angels.
According to Bonner, before he started the mural he had made requests via social media for suggestions on who people thought were best suited for the mural. Most of the suggestions were included on the final piece, with a exceptions because he did not know enough about them and had little time to complete the task ahead.
Bonner was hoping for people to appreciate the greatness that has come from the Central District such as people that have made a name for themselves and those that suffered and beat the odds.
“These people on the mural have lost somebody and got through the hardship and still prospering and they have helped somebody get through a hard time and helped them prosper,” said Bonner. “They got to the top of their pinnacle in their profession, they’ve seen people and shook hands with people that everyone wants to meet… they are showing the next generation that you can do it too.”
