My purpose as an artists seems to be that of mark maker, a recorder of memories, a translator of events and emotions a teller of the story that is life. Not the big picture, but little snippets of no particular interest. My art practice is based on a phenomenological regard of what a place, a situation or a memory feels like, not what it looks like, some are my memories some borrowed from other people, previous inhabitants of the space, they are never finished until they are passed onto a new owner as the story is ever unfolding.
It is the complex feelings which happen in a single moment which fascinate me, and I attempt to capture within the work. My work is created from an Animistic viewpoint, a celebration, of the essence that is life, Earth-Water-Fire- Air- Void.
A creative reaction to all that is, both the observed or physical world and the unseen or Spirit world. Also those moments where the spirit world shows itself and becomes seen and the physical world merely exists as a symbolic gesture. There is no sharp distinction between the two realities; what happens in one affects the other.
It’s a cyclical mantra, within the materials the lime and pigments used are of the 4 elements. The work is then a physical and spiritual ( 5th element) representation of the elements. The work one day will eventually return back to the elements.
Sometimes within a piece a basic framework forms appear, these forms represent life -past-present-future, they represent man, consciousness, thought, emotion, the senses. Mainly the figure like form is a symbolic representation of the ‘I am’ that is mankind. They are eager to be seen and have their story to be told, even if that story is just a scratch on the board.
It’s the sounds, smells, emotions, realisations, of being part of everything and everything being part of me. The awareness that we are in a constant cycle of life and death and that as fast as we are growing we are also decomposing.The marks created in the work come from a mindfulness of being in the moment, the focus is on the doing, and the feeling, the outcome is not important at this stage. I am not interested in the object here, rather the process.
Kelvin Burr
