June LaVonne

California & ColoradoEarly years

June LaVonne was born in California and grew up in Colorado and California. From age 14 to 18 she studied White Lotus martial arts as a dedicated student of Sifu Douglas Wong in Los Angeles and became an assistant instructor. She also worked as a model, as an extra in commercials and video clips, and as a voice for radio commercials at George Tobin’s studios.

Late 1970sDallas

At 18 she moved to Dallas, Texas, where she met her future husband at a kung fu school and learned Chinese cooking, Cantonese and Chinese writing — an influence that ran through her artwork for the rest of her life. The marriage lasted only a year. In 1978 she worked as a kung fu instructor for David Bowie, then went on to college in Dallas, finishing as an honour-roll student.

1980The Pinups

An agent brought June back to Los Angeles, where she was chosen as lead singer of the New Wave girl band The Pinups (Polydor Records). Their first release, “New Wave Lover”, was a hit in Germany and “Wild Thing” charted in France. That took her to Germany, where she appeared in the film “The Pinups und ein heißer Typ” (CCC-Films, Berlin), starring Sascha Hehn and directed by Joel Silberg.

1981 – 1983LaVonne

After a year in Germany she returned to L.A., left The Pinups and formed her own new wave punk band, LaVonne, playing live with John Kane and Tim Aller. She worked 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 Waite).

1984 – 1989Music in Germany

Invited back to Germany in 1984, she wrote lyrics for various roba music productions and, as Bonnie Benedict, released several singles — “I’ll Be Waiting” became a disco hit in Italy. She settled in Hamburg, and her daughter was born in 1985. In 1986 she joined the live band Cosmic Toys, writing songs with its members, and in 1988 became one half of the duo Sweet Connection, who charted in France and Germany with “Need Your Passion” and “Dirty Job”.

1990 – 1994Fine arts and music

In the early ’90s June turned her creative energy to the fine arts, working as a sculptor and painter. Her aim was a fusion of visual art and music in her own artistic music videos, which led to a thorough education as a multimedia specialist. She also taught English and created her own teaching method, “The Grammar Hammer”, used at several private language schools. Still devoted to music, she founded “Philosophy of Shit”, a live improvisation band with former bandmates, where she developed the “Language of the Soul” — using the voice itself as an instrument.

1994 – 1998Multimedia artist

From 1994 June worked as a professional multimedia artist and special-effects supervisor for TV advertising and film, including Felidae, The NeverEnding Story animated series, Pinocchio, Benjamin Blümchen and The Jungle Book – Mowgli and Baloo.

1998 – 2003Design and video work

June worked as a designer, retoucher and video artist. She directed and animated music videos for Rev-Up and for No Bucks for Drugs, a project of the Haus der Jugend youth center in Hamburg, and edited a presentation video for The Rite Spirit Gospel Singers. She created cover and catalogue designs for IBM and CI-Tech, and designed set cards and presentations — with retouching and colour work — for model agencies including Elite Models, Model Team, Network Models, Personality Pool and Body & Soul, and for photographers Michael Bernard and Tom Seelbach. She also did high-resolution retouching for Georg Fisher (Daimler-Chrysler, Audi), Optix and Zerone.

2003 – 2025lavonne.de

From 2003 June worked as an independent artist and art director under her own name at lavonne.de, creating paintings, drawings and digital art. She kept making music, too — with Rev-Up (“Curl Up”, 2006), Shee-Wa (“You’re Not Fooling Nobody”) and Bazille Noir with Jens Paulsen (2012).

August 2025In memory

June LaVonne passed away in August 2025. This site keeps her paintings, drawings, music and videos together in one place, as she shared them.