ARTWORK LITERATURE
Persistent Thoughts, Arguments and Symbols
Ed Burke - Peekskill NY Studio.
The paintings selected for this folio represent a shift in my creative process. They have evolved from persistent thoughts, arguments, and symbols playing out in my mind and appearing in current paintings. Much like a commercial jingle or phrase that gets stuck in one's head, "Winston Tastes Good Like a Cigarette Should," or noxious but stuck in the annals of one's mind.
In 2007 there was a change in my creative process and the intention of my art. The paintings' content was no longer about interpreting the world around me from three sources: direct observation, the mind's eye, and the id. New ideas, gestures, and symbols demanded attention by my nagging thoughts and concerns regarding the impact of government, religion, and economic models on the environment and humanity.
"Credit Cards" The three paintings, titled "Master Card," "Visa Card," and "Amex Card," contain symbols that are reoccurring in many of my images. The three factory smokestacks, shown active with billowing smoke and other times dormant, is a simple visual idea that represents the conundrum of manufacturing the economy vs. providing a healthy environment. The question remains, can we improve our economy without damaging our environment?
"Master Card" Acrylic / Canvas 30" x 40".
"Visa Card" Acrylic / Canvas 30" x 40".
"Amex Card" Acrylic / Canvas 30" x 40".
“Black Cross Mythologies” In the series of paintings, I address the argument of ancient religious mythologies that the concept of "faith" is evidence to prove the validity of various religious ideas. Bertrand Russell's parable of the celestial teapot has been incorporated into the painting titled "Black Cross Mythologies – Celestial Teapot." The parable's theory is that one can have the same steadfast belief that a teapot is orbiting the solar system as they can have in any other religious idea, as either argument only requires "faith" as validation.
"Black Cross Mythology - Creation" Acrylic / Canvas 30" x 40"
"Black Cross Mythology - Wo-Man" Acrylic / Canvas 30" x 40"
"Red Dot, Green Dot," these two paintings, along with the other work in this selection, another idea drives this body of work is developing groups of paintings that interact with each other. These paintings have an aesthetic and content that stands on its own. It is also intended that grouped together, the paintings' impact and significance are intensified. I am intrigued by the idea that these paintings, at some point, may never be seen together again. They may reside in different locations, yet they will always be joined together by the intentional intertwined relationship that allows these paintings to communicate something more significant when they are together than when they are apart.
"Envirofacturing Green Dot" Acrylic / Canvas 30" x 40".
"Envirofacturing Red Dot" Acrylic / Canvas 30" x 40".
Conceptually the idea is to see paintings as if they were stills from a film where the compositional elements (the cast of characters) move and change, reinvent themselves, or new characters might enter the frame. The paintings are realized as if they were out-takes from a film.