Full Circle

Rachael J. Burke Artist Statement
April 2023
Title of show: FULL CIRCLE

There is a reason my show is titled, Full Circle. As a younger painter and through my graduate studies and thesis, my major works were abstractions motivated by nature and outside environments. My interest and study also explored the human form primarily through thousands of gestural drawings. I never lost my interest in the figure, but I have returned full circle producing more abstractions.

I am an improvisational painter which means I make most of my decisions in real time instead of using a completely or even vastly predetermined system. The goal is to capture the evolving and elusive nature of perception along with creating a psychological state of mind. While I paint traditional subjects, my paintings lean more towards abstraction. I use instinct to create a totally new experience through the true subject of my work, which is the painting process. These recent works are more layered, full bodied and textured, and more varied spatially than my previous work. Often, I choose to allow the surface to reveal evidence of how I build the painting when searching for equivalencies for what I think and feel. I am digging for the connective reality we all share.