Born Maria Coeli Bona on April 24, 1972, Bonacoeli is a 6th generation artist from her maternal great-great-great-great Chinese mestizo painter-grandfather, Mariano, of Sta. Cruz, Manila whose children were painters and sculptors, the most famous of whom was the 19th century classic portraitist, Justiniano Asuncion (1816 - 1896) or Capitan Ting. An extant portrait by Justiniano Asuncion is Bonacoeli’s heirloom portrait on ivory plate (1854) of her maternal great great grand mother, Filomena Asuncion (1838 - 1912), then 16 years old. Bonacoeli received her artistic and humanistic orientation from her parents, Dean Pascual Sayo Guerzon and Maria Rosario Luisa Gomez Quintos. In her grade and high school years in St. Theresa's College, Quezon City, Philippines, Bonacoeli manifested her inclination to painting. To prepare herself for a wider perspective in life, Bonacoeli received in 1993 her college degree in hotel and restaurant administration from the University of the Philippines. She entered the corporate world at the Philippine Stock Exchange in its promotion and advertising section and the foreign cable television company, Star TV. Feeling the need for a creative career, Bonacoeli decided in 1997 to return to the University of the Philippines in the College of Fine Arts for her 3-year postgraduate studies in painting. Bonacoeli thus followed in the footsteps of her painter ancestors and has kept the family artistic tradition in painting. Bonacoeli has been a full-time fine arts painter since, with over a hundred oil paintings with art patrons in their private collections.