:: about ::
Photo credit: Mel Musto
AT WORK
Get a glimpse of Jessica Burko at work through these journalistic photographs by Boston photographer Brad Romano. Click HERE to view the photo essay, and see a Virtual Studio Visit hosted by the Cambridge Art Association HERE.
RESUME
Burko’s artwork has been seen in venues including the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, the Attleboro Arts Museum, the Danforth Museum, Samson Projects Gallery, and the Rochester Museum of Art (NH). Artwork by Jessica Burko has been published on the cover of Canadian writer Jenni Samprisi’s novel iswas and can also be seen on the set of Ben Affleck’s 2010 film The Town. Click HERE for a full CV.
BIO
Jessica Burko is a practicing artist who creates process-oriented work including photographic mixed-media, site-specific installation, and layered compositions with paint and debris. She has exhibited her work since 1985 in galleries and museums throughout the US and internationally, including Kellogg University Art Gallery (Cal Poly, Pomona, CA), Danforth Museum (Framingham, MA), and the Maine Museum of Photographic Arts (Portland, ME). She holds a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design, and an MFA from Rochester Institute of Technology. In addition to her own practice, Burko is immersed in the arts community as an organizer, teacher, curator, and coach. She leads professional workshops through organizations such as Assets 4 Artists and works one-on-one with creatives to guide their process for gaining visibility in the art world and building a path to reach their creative and professional goals. As a curator, Burko has produced more than 40 exhibitions in her career, and she is currently the Board President of the United South End Artists and Coordinator of the South End Open Studios. Jessica Burko is originally from Philadelphia and currently lives and works in Boston, Massachusetts.
TECHNICAL INFO
Burko’s photographic mixed-media and installation work begins in a traditional manner then embarks on a non-traditional journey. The result of this path is a change in how the photograph behaves in space, and how the viewer interacts with it. The image is no longer held behind glass, and begins to relate in a tactile way to those encountering it.
The original photographs in Jessica Burko’s mixed-media artwork are captured primarily with an iPhone, and also with a variety of 35mm and 120mm, positive and negative films and digital cameras. The images are digitized and printed either with ink onto watercolor paper, or as laser prints to be used for photo transfers. For Burko's collage work, vintage photographs and ephemera are found in attics, basements, at yard sales and flea markets. The work is created by combining a variety of techniques including sewing, image transfers, and encaustic collage. In her installation work, the drawers are found on curbsides around Boston.
ABOUT ENCAUSTIC:
Much of Jessica Burko’s work incorporates encaustic as a collage mechanism and a means for image transfers. As one of the world’s oldest and most archival art media, encaustic is a combination of raw beeswax, damar resin and pigment. It is applied in molten form in layers, and fused at high heat. The word encaustic comes from Greek ‘enkaustikos’, which means 'to burn in,' referring to the process of fusing the medium. Encaustic has been used to ornament Greek ships, paint murals for ancient Roman homes, and was the medium of choice for the astonishingly life-like Egyptian mummy portraits, circa 200 BC. These portraits were painted from life on wooden panels and the state of preservation of these panels is a testament to encaustic’s durability.
Basic ancient encaustic techniques remain the same while it has become a very popular 21st century medium. Encaustic can be polished to a high gloss, carved, scraped, layered, utilized in collage processes, textured, and beautifully facilitates image transfers. It cools immediately so that there is no drying time, and yet because it can be reheated, it can always be reworked. Encaustic is a very durable artists’ medium because beeswax is impervious to moisture; it will not deteriorate, it will not yellow, and it will not darken. Encaustic artwork does not have to be varnished or protected by glass.