I have been a practicing artist for as long as I can remember. I come from an "art family" with a landscape painter mother and a writer father, so making art was fully integrated into my life from a very young age. My earliest formal training was in photography, and I began exhibiting my photographs in 1985. Since then I have earned 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. Throughout my years of study I have explored traditional photography, alternative processes in photography, and began experimenting with combining text, printmaking, and book arts techniques with my photographic images in the mid-1990s. For the past 5 years my work has been directly inspired by my journey through motherhood, self-reflection and the "theater of the domestic". I see each piece of my artwork as a non-linear narrative inspired by my life loud with children, laughter, cynicism, work, and vivid dreams.

All of my work is one-of-a-kind and I create it in my studio located in Boston's South End neighborhood. I have chosen not to make prints (reproductions) of my images so that I can insure that each person purchasing a piece of mine becomes a true art collector and can feel confident that they are adding something to their collection that no one else has. It's important to me that I make a direct connection with my collectors and knowing that they take home a piece that I built with my own two hands means a lot to me. Each piece that I create combines found ephemera* and vintage snapshots with my original photographic images. The collected parts are assembled with encaustic** on reclaimed wood. I use many collage techniques in my work including sewing and image transferring. The stitched, collaged, layered aspects of life, pieces of domestic space, and unexpected portraits in my work, are both real and imagined. One reason I utilize discarded materials in my work is as a way to reclaim the past and blend it with the present, and I also love giving new life to discarded materials.

My artwork had been displayed in solo and group shows throughout the United States including recent venues such as the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, the Attleboro Arts Museum, the Danforth Museum, Samson Projects Gallery, and the Rochester Museum of Art (NH). My artwork has also been published on the cover of Canadian writer Jenni Samprisi’s novel, iswas and can also be seen on the set of Ben Affleck’s 2010 film, The Town. You can learn more about me and my work on my website: http://jessicaburko.com

*ephemera: items of collectible memorabilia, typically written or printed ones, that were originally expected to have only short-term usefulness or popularity.
**encaustic: one of the world’s oldest and most archival art media. It is a combination of raw beeswax, damar resin and pigment. It is applied in molten form in layers, and fused at high heat.