Jessica Burko
Jessica Burko has been an exhibiting artist since 1985 and is currently the Creative Director of the Photographic Resource Center in Cambridge, MA. She holds a BFA in Fine Art Photography from Rhode Island School of Design, and an MFA in Imaging Arts and Science from Rochester Institute of Technology. Burko has shown in exhibitions throughout the United States including recently in New England with a 2018 solo show at ArtProv Gallery, Providence, RI, her work was included in Exposure 2019 at the Photograpic Resource Center, Cambridge, MA, and she had a 2020 solo exhibition at the Shelter In Place Gallery, Boston, MA. Her work has been reviewed in the Boston Globe, Art New England, and Artscope Magazine. Jessica Burko’s studio is in the Wareham Studio Building in Boston’s South End where she has been producing her photography-based mixed media work since 2006.
My work combines photography and encaustic medium with collected substrates bearing imagery of fragmented self-portraits and natural objects. Presenting portrait parts beneath encaustic is my way of quieting the penetrating the sounds of life while also surrendering to its insistence. The many-step process of creating the works, and in the surface encasing script, hatch, figure, and mark is imbued with both meditative and monotonous motion. Much of my work comes out of emotional divisiveness, feeling split, and in demand by conflicting forces. The battle between yearning for one thing but doing something else is of great influence.
The photographic process of capturing my own image in action fosters a connection between conscious, subconscious, and unconscious mind and emotions. I travel a path through the work that explores connections between home, mind, and body and incorporating found materials helps me feel grounded in what’s real and what exists outside of my head. The works traverse feelings explored while struggling to find place, and meaning, and purpose, and time.
