June La Vonne, aka Bonnie Benedict

The young ages
June LaVonne was born in California and grew up in Colorado and Califormia. From age 14 until 18 she studied the White Lotus Martial Arts as a dedicated student of her Sifu Douglas Wong in Los Angeles for four years and became an assistant instructor. Besides that she worked as a model, as extra in various commercials and video clips as well as speaker for radio commercials in George Tobin’s studios.

Dallas days
At age 18 she moved to Dallas, Texas,  where she met her future chinese husband in a Kung-Fu school and learned the art of chinese cooking, Cantonese language and writing which influences her artwork until today. Her marriage lasted only one year. She worked as a Kung Fu instructor for David Bowie in 1978 and then decided to go to college in Dallas Texas where she finished as an honour roll student.

1980 – The Pinups
In 1980 an agent called and asked June to come back to L.A. for  some interviews, where she was chosen as lead singer for the New Wave girl band The Pinups. (Polydor Records). Already their first release “New Wave Lover” became a huge success in Germany and “Wild Thing” which made it in France. That brought her to Germany where she also featured a movie (CCC-Films, Berlin) called “The Pinups und ein heißer Typ”, starring Sascha Hehn, directed by Joel Silberg.

1981 – 1983 LaVonne
She stayed in Germany for one year, went back to L.A. where she quit The Pinups to form her own new wave punk band called “LaVonne” where she played live with John Kane and Tim Aller. She worked together with songwriter Jack Lee ( Hanging on the telephone – for Blondie, “Come back and stay” -  for Paul Young) and songwriter/producer Chas Sandford (“Missing You, by John Waites)

1984 – 1989 – music in Germany
In 1984 she was invited to Germany and wrote lyrics for roba music various productions. As Bonnie Benedict she released a few singles – “I’ll be waiting” became a disco hit in Italy. She then got married, settled down in Hamburg and had her daughter in 1985. In 1986 she joined the live Band “Cosmic Toys” and wrote songs together with her band members. In 1988 she became a member of the girl-duo “Sweet Connection” who entered the charts with their songs “Need your Passion” and “Dirty Job” in France and Germany.

1990 – 1994 – fusion of fine arts and music
In the early 90’s June LaVonne focused her creative energy on the fine arts and became a sculptures and painter. Her aim was the fusion of visual art and music, to create her own artistic music videos. This developed into a well-grounded education as a multimedia specialist. During that time she also worked as an English teacher and created her own teaching method “The Grammar Hammer”, which she successfully taught to different private English schools. Still into music, she founded the “Philosophy of Shit” a live live improvisation band together with various former band members which is still active today. There she developed the “Language of the Soul” where the voice itself becomes an instrument.

1994 – 1998 – multimedia artist
From 1994 June LaVonne worked as professional multimedia artist and supervisor special effects for many TV advertisements and movies (Felidae, Never Ending Story cartoon series, Pinocchio, Benjamin Blümchen, The Jungle Book – Mowgli and Balu and others).

• 1998-1999, REV-UP
  Animated Music Video
  Director, Char, BG-PROPS, Special FXs, Original and Digital Designing, Compositing, picture retouch, Colourmatch
  Position: Operator & Art Director ( Adobe Premiere, Illustrator, Photoshop )
• 1998, IBM ( CGI )
  Various Cover Designs
  Creative Designer ( Photography / Paint / BG Designs ), CYMK colourmatching for Print
  Position: Operator ( Photoshop, QuarkXpress, Windows, MAC )
• 1998-1999, CI-TECH
  Catalog Covers & Inlay Designs
  Creative Design, Layout, Colour Schemes, Paint, BGs
  Position: Operator ( Photoshop, QuarkXpress, Macintosh, Windows )
• 1999-2002, Elite Models / Model Management – Germany
  Set Card Layouts, Designs, Internet Presentations, Picture retouching, Colour management
  (www.model-mamagement.de)
  Position: Operator ( Photoshop, QuarkXpress, Macintosh, Windows )
• 1999-2002, Optix
  Stylist Cards
  Picture retouching, Colour Corrections, Matching, Layout designer
  Position: Operator ( Illustrator, Photoshop, QuarkXpress, Macintosh, Windows )
• 1999-2002, Model Team
  Set Card Layouts, Designs, Präsentations, Picture Retouching, Colour Corrections
  Position: Operator ( Photoshop, QuarkXpress, Macintosh, Windows )
• 1999-2003, Network Models
  Set Card Layouts, Designs, Picture Retouching, Colour Corrections, Layout
  Position: Operator ( Photoshop, QuarkXpress, Macintosh, Windows )
• 2001-2003, Personality Pool
  Set Card Layouts, Designs, Picture Retouching, Colour Corrections
  Position: Operator ( Photoshop, QuarkXpress, Macintosh, Windows )
• 1999-2001, Body & Soul
  Set Card Layouts, Designs, Picture Retouching, Colour Corrections
  Position: Operator ( Photoshop, QuarkXpress, Macintosh, Windows )
• Various Photographers / Stylisten etc..
• 2002, Georg Fisher
  Daimler – Chyrsler / Audi
  Picture Retouching, Colour Corrections, Matching
  Position: Location Operator ( Photoshop, Macintosh )
• 2000-2002, Michael Bernard / Photographer
  Presentation Layouts, Designs, Picture Retouching, Colour Corrections, Matching
  Position: Operator ( Photoshop, QuarkXpress, Macintosh )
• 2001-2002, Tom Seelbach / Photographer
  Presentations, Layouts, Designs, Picture Retouching, Colour Corrections, Matching
  Position: Operator ( Photoshop, QuarkXpress, Macintosh, Windows )
• 1999-2002
  Presentation layouts, Designs, Picture Retouching, Colour Corrections, Matching
  Position: Operator ( Photoshop, QuarkXpress, Macintosh, Windows )
• 2002, Zerone
  Various advertisements
  Position: HiRes picture retouching operator ( Photoshop )
• 2003, No Bucks for Drugs, Hamburg youth center ( “Haus der Jugend” )
  Animated Music Video / DVD
  Director, Pre- Post-Production, Camera, CHAR, BG, PROPS, Special FXs, Original, Digital Designing, Compositing, Picture retouching, Design, Colour matching
  Position: Operator, Editor ( Adobe Premiere, Photoshop, DVDpro )
• 2003, The Rite Spirit Gospel Singers
  Presentation Video / DVD
  Video editing, Post Production, Compositing, Colourmatching
  Position: Operator, Editor ( Adobe Premiere, DVD Studio Pro )
• 2003, www.lavonne.de
  Position: Art Director, artist