Rachael J. Burke was born Rachael Deborah Jacobs in Pottstown, PA in 1954. She was a Professor of Art at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania where she began teaching full-time in 1990. Burke received her MFA in Painting from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio in 1983 and a BFA from Western Kentucky University in 1977. Before 1990, she taught part-time at the Art Academy of Cincinnati and Miami University.
She has had numerous solo exhibitions in galleries, museums and universities, including the following: The Erie Art Museum, Erie PA; The LOWE Gallery, Atlanta, GA; Gallery 937, Pittsburgh, PA; Yvonne Rapp Gallery, Louisville, KY; Malton Gallery, Cincinnati, OH; and Mercyhurst College, Erie, PA.
Her exhibition list also includes participation in shows at The Butler Institute of American Art, Carnegie Museum of Art, The Chautauqua Art Institute, Evansville Museum of Arts and Science, J.B. Speed Museum, Owensboro Museum of Fine art, Headley Whitney Museum, and The Museum of Art of Ogunquit, Maine. She has received numerous awards and honors and her work is in many public and private collections.
"My desire is to capture the raw energy of nature. I am most taken with the underlying structures that pulsate and palpitate with life as a network to all the elements throughout nature. When I experience the woods at home, I feel the flux, changes, and aliveness all around me. The branches, stems, and roots are like arteries and veins pumping life through the environs, motivating me to share these sensations."
