Music Fest 2013 - a beautiful day at the studio

Good music, lots of friends – a really fun time last Saturday. Vids & pics from the event.

Emerging Artist at BurkeTriolo photo album

SXSP III at BurkeTriolo May 4

The South Pas Eclectic Music Fest returns to BurkeTriolo Studio on Saturday May 4 with our very own South by South Pasadena III. See the lineup below - 

Special welcome to returning acts Tapioca and the Flea and South Pas' own Torches. 

Pizza by Mama's & cold beer on tap. 

Free Admission

BurkeTriolo Studio 538 Mission St, South Pasadena, 2-10pm

I'll be showing previews of my latest project "Mission Street 2013" - 

J.T. Burke-O-Ramic views of Mission Street and Fair Oaks Ave.

Emerging Artists' Stage Lineup
8:00-9:00 Torches
6:45-7:45 Tapioca and the Flea
5:30-6:30 L.A. Witch
4:30-5:15 Mt. Ossa
3:30-4:15 Jacaranda Red 
2:30-3:15 Phoebe Bridgers

DJ sets by Conway Stiles

The Mission Street Project

Unless you live here, you probably wouldn't know that our beloved little town, South Pasadena California, is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year. In honor of the town's B-day, the Preservation Foundation is burying a time capsule filled with memorabilia to be opened at the 200th anniversary in 2088. I've begun a project to add to the capsule; I'm creating a 40-block panorama of Mission Street (north and south) and Fair Oaks Ave (east and west).

The specific technique is all my own, littered with Escher-esque impossible angles and half-dissolved autos. It's become a Pleasantville of a sort – not terribly artificial, but sweetened. The sky is gorgeous blue and people on the streets frequently appear in multiple places simultaneously. I call the compositions J.T. Burke-O-ramas.

This isn't a small project. The photography is the easy part; I walk in the parking lane and shoot across the street, one side at a time. I walk quickly and snap lots of overlapping images. Compositing in the studio is more time-consuming. I assemble each block one at a time, about one every two hours. I strip in a blue sky and mend the roadway. I emphasize our beautiful trees and try not to lose the street signs. I take special care with the storefronts.

What the pictures lack in accuracy they make up in sincerity; any South Pas resident will instantly recognize most panels as everyday views of our little town. And though it's a little tedious, working on this project has become a guilty pleasure. As of today I've completed 19 of the 40 blocks. I'll be sad (but relieved) when it's complete. The time capsule goes into the ground end of June.

Watch the work in progress at jtburke.com/missionstreet

The Paradise Circus premiering at LAAA

Amphybia the Froggish Lassy

I've been working on a new series of images since last fall. "The Paradise Circus" is an evolution of work I've done over the past few years; it combines vintage costume jewelry with human figures from my archives in a style that references children's fairy tales and Byzantine iconography. The images are accompanied with verse that helps to illuminate the concept (see below). 

The series playfully rejects canonical notions of heaven and hell,  meaning that perhaps sister Mary Joseph, my first grade teacher, might not have had any better insight about the hereafter than I did when she warned of the dangers of eternal damnation and hellfire.

(She really did talk about "hellfire," comparing it to holding your hand over a lit candle until your skin burned. "Hell is like that over your whole body for eternity!" she told us. We were 6 years old. We didn't want to go to Hell.)

Perhaps there's a gentler space between the world and the Light that the soul experiences which we haven't even considered, a rapture that we all endure each in our own way. A place that is, by its very nature, without fear, pain or hardship. The thought challenges some fundamental religious notions. I'm excited about this new series and look forward to doing more. 

The first five large format images of the series will be presented in a unique installation at the LA Art Association's Gallery 825 from February 23 until March 22. Opening reception is Saturday, Feb 23 from 6-9pm. Everyone welcome.

N!xau and Reynard

Upon the rocky isle we begin

Life of passions, life of fears

Simple minds with too few choices

All done in short years

Wondering what more there is

We search for the salve

We read the book, we sing the chant

It’s said that’s all we have

Behold the Paradise Circus

Glorious spectacle, resplendent sight

It’s the show that never ends

Astounding beauty inside the brightest, bright white light

See the Spectacle!  Be the Spectacle!

All past wounds healed

See the Spectacle!  Be the Spectacle!

All the answers revealed

 An exposition for one and all

Each performance made by you

Shaman says only for the righteous

But it plays for the wicked, too

Simple enough to get there

Just breathe your earthly last

Gaze into the stars above

Gymnasia the Dance Fly

And care not for life now passed

The mask becomes your character

You are what you want to be

What you believe you now become

Create your own destiny

See the Spectacle!  Be the Spectacle!

All the secrets unsealed

See the Spectacle!  Be the Spectacle!

All the truths revealed

 Feel the embrace of ten-thousand

The warmth of open arms

A member of the family

Finally home, safe from harm

Milton’s book made us look

With pity on the Dark One

But his mind’s eye was just like ours

So, too, just like the Son’s

For Man is the measure of all things

Even as we enter the tent

Then the Circus plays, for days and days

‘til into the Light we’re sent

 See the Spectacle!  Be the Spectacle!

All the old habbits yield

See the Spectacle!  Be the Spectacle!

All the spoofs revealed

– The Paradise Circus

"Behind the Lens" at Joanne Artman Gallery

I'll be showing recent work at Joanne Artman Gallery in Laguna Beach, California, opening Thursday November 1 and showing through the end of year. Joanne has a lovely gallery in an idyllic, seaside town right on Pacific Coast Hwy. The opening is part of the Thursday Laguna Art Walk.

The Mind Is Its Own Place

The mind is its own place, and in itself

Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n

Paradise Lost   1:254-255

Here's a composition inspired by John Milton's epic poem. I've recently discovered Paradise Lost. I haven't actually read it through (yet)– it's quite a slog of Olde English. (I bought the version that has the original text and modern translations side-by-side. Highly recommended.) Vivid imagery; God, Satan, epic scenes of worship and battle, Adam & Eve, flaming swords and the Garden of Paradise. Pretty incredible. It's the original Sympathy for the Devil. 

In progress: 

Awake, arise, or be for ever fall'n.   PL 1:330

"Beautiful Mask II" at LAAA's Simulacrum

I'm showing this piece at the LA Art Association show opening Saturday night. Not sure that I know what "Simulacrum" actually means, but I guess Bennett Roberts from Roberts & Tilton decided it fits.

Visit LAAA.org to find out more.