John Bonath has been working with Robert Mann Rugs for over thirty years. You may have seen his photography and design work on the Robert Mann Rugs website, the Restoration Yarns website , or the Antique Textile Conservation website . His images appear in our social media campaigns and have represented the company in three decades of postcards. John has created the branding look of Robert Mann Rugs, setting our image apart from others in the field.
John’s working relationship with RMR has been a close one, and one that has evolved with expressive freedom and friendships. Last year, John traveled to Turkey with Robert Mann, to photograph the ATC (Antique Textile Conservation) facility in Izmir, and to brainstorm design ideas for the new ATC website. Here are a few images of our sister company in Turkey from that trip.
John has been a widely exhibited artist throughout his life. After high school, he went on to art school, getting a BFA degree from the Cleveland Institute of Art and eventually finishing an MFA degree from Western Michigan University. Upon finishing graduate school, he moved to Fort Collins, C0lorado to build the Fine Art BFA Photograhy Program at Colorado State University. After a ten-year tenured professorship there, he moved to Japan, for four years, to work on a book, and to teach.
When he returned to the US, he set up a commercial photography and design business in Denver, Colorado. The business was called Maddog Studio. At its peak, it was a niche photography business, photographing artwork for over 250 individual artists.
Presently, John is semi-retired, doing commercial work for select, long-time clients, and continuing to produce his art and exhibit. This year, John has had works presented in several major exhibitions, which included a major installation at the Arvada Center’s triennial of Colorado artists, and was included in a major show, and book, on the history of photography in Colorado. For a more detailed account of John’s life, check out this bio .
“The Tea Party,” an installation from The State of the Art 2025 exhibition at the Arvada Center, Arvada, CO
“Andy Warhol, Fort Collins, CO, 1982,” exhibited in the Outside Influence: History of Photography in Colorado Since 1945 exhibition at the Vicki Myhren Gallery, University of Denver
Perhaps the most recognized images that John has produced for Robert Mann is his 30-year line of postcards. Several of our clients have collected them all. One of our clients told us that she has a full wall of them in her studio. John creates them as art for people’s refrigerator doors – while also serving to promote our annual sales and events. Our goal is for them to stand out from other mailings, so they pop and peak curiosity creating a moment of hesitancy when the trash gets sorted. Here are a few samples of some of the cards we produced as well as some images we did not use.
Two of our first postcards
John is always learning something about the vast universe of rug restoration and cleaning, along with its rich history. The incredible visual material surrounding this industry has motivated and inspired him as an artist. Of note is the Synapse Tapestry series that he created out of hand-spun yarn from Northwestern Iran. This particular series was a part of the Shared Visions Project, with Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer writing poetry, and Paul Fowler composing choral music based on John’s yarn series. This collaboration debuted with the Ars Nova Singers performing the work (check it out with this link).
“Synapse Tapestry” dyptich, hand-spun yarn from Northwestern Iran
You can view John’s lifetime of work at www.johnbonath.com. If you are interested, please sign on to John’s fine art email list on the bottom of the homepage.