Bonezeye Leather
Bonezeye Leather is the creative brainchild of Adrian Cavazos, aka Bonezeye. As a lifelong artist, Adrian has worked with multiple mediums. From music to painting to jewelry to woodworking to taxidermy — and now to leatherwork, Adrian's artistic journey has led him down new paths to express his creativity.
Bonezeye Leather came to fruition shortly after Adrian relocated to Austin, Texas. An aficionado of comedy, Adrian stumbled across The Kill Tony Podcast, which had also relocated to Austin via Los Angeles. A spark of ingenuity went off in Adrian's head. He noticed two standout things: the sponsored gifts from local companies and the comics struggling to find their set notes on their phones onstage. These two things clicked in Adrian's mind and he realized he could offer custom handmade leather joke books to the Podcast which could then be given out to the participants on the show. What better way to welcome Tony Hinchcliffe, Brian Redban, and the Kill Tony Podcast to Austin, Texas? A big leather joke book for a good set and an itsy-bitsy, teeny-weenie leather joke book for comics that still need to work on their jokes and/or routines. Adrian immediately reached out to Tony who welcomed the offer with open arms — and the rest is history.
I've always been passionate about the arts. Whether it be creating art musically, by brushwork, or through leatherwork, art and the pursuit of it has been the catalyst and driving force behind my life path.
Musically, my form of expression is primarily through drums. In fact, music is an inheritance that runs through my veins — I am a fourth generation musician on my fathers' side, a lineage of working musicians till this day. My fondest early memories are of traveling with the family band and watching my father play drums. I learned the tricks of the trade from watching him, which fueled an internal fire to be a better drummer every day.
As I began to pursue art through other mediums, I learned that holding a paintbrush felt just as natural as holding a pair of drumsticks. In fact, my artistic expression via brushes and paint helped me to express myself in more tangible and visible ways than music did. Capturing emotions and my experiences on an empty canvas helped me to visualize my goals. Each new day became a blank canvas that I had to fill with brush strokes, just like every step I took in life led me in a different direction — but both always led me towards a more authentic version of myself. I make choices: colors, textures, lines, and shadows, and that's the beauty in creating art. It is both a part of me and an expression of who I am. Whether planned or spontaneous, my goal is to always capture each emotion and image and present it in a better medium every time.
A winding path of creative exploration led me later to leather work and specifically, leather book making. When I first got into leatherwork, as with my years of being a taxidermist, I immediately felt a strong connection with nature. Being able to bring life back into something that was dead was what hooked me. Most people see a piece of leather and think of a leather jacket — or if they are adventurous enough — leather pants, but to me it is a piece of our natural world. Something that has been around longer than humans and connects us via our ancestors and nature itself. I love being able to preserve nature in its glorious stages and allow it to be enjoyed by others as well.
It's simple — my love for art is what keeps me inspired and therefore alive. As a self taught artist, I've trained myself to choose how loud a drum should be played, how fine a line should be brushed, and how sharp my blade must be. And this is what — and why — I want to continue to share my work and my journey with others.
