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September 2014 Volume 3 No. 9
VISUAL LANGUAGE contemporary fine art
J W Burke
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Trouble Maker Found
http://www.artbyjwburke.com/
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J W BURKE The Lonesome Crowded West
A Horse Named Wish
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Studio Visit JW Burke The Lonesome Crowded West
Some artists say they feel compelled to create, as if a voice inside is driving them in their craft. But for J.W. Burke, art was all about getting the voices to stop. In 1988, Burke was eighteen years old, living in Carmel, California and working maintenance for a wealthy businessman. “I spent my days off roaming the streets,” he recalls, “partly chasing girls, and partly admiring the many incredible galleries.” But his wideopen future would come crashing down at the hands of a group of his peers. “As a cruel prank, they poisoned me with a massive LSD overdose,” he says. The drugging caused him to suffer severe constant delusions, including both audio and visual hallucinations, and to harbor paranoid thoughts. “These mimicked the symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia. I was unable to maintain my sanity.” For years, Burke lived either on the streets, where he got in trouble with the law, or in mental health hospitals, where he struggled to regain his faculties. “I lived filthy and homeless,” he says, “begging for change and sleeping in a box. My delusions over the years had convinced me that I was somehow being controlled by, or tortured by, manmade voices.” The sounds emanating from public television or radio were a source of agonizing torment for him. “In September of 1997,” he recalls, “my delusions drove me to commit two acts of robbery, both without bloodshed. I remember clearly how, upon my arrest, as soon as I was handcuffed and placed in the police car, my delusions stopped—dead quiet. No voices, no hallucinations, no disorientation… just the sound of the car and the static of the police radio.”
by Dave Justus
ing, ‘Here, I think you are going to be an artist.’” He had balked, and had grown up believing that art was beyond his capabilities. But in prison, with time and determination on his side, he took up his materials and started to create. “I began drawing in my cell to help stabilize, exercise, and restructure my mind against relapse,” he says. “Soon I asked myself, ‘What can you do to save yourself? What are your options?’” Feeling that the prison system gave him few ways to succeed, he faced down his lengthy term and made his decision. “To become an artist or a writer would allow me two ways to strengthen my mind. One, to teach myself a career that could lead to financial independence, and two, to obtain possible assistance in regaining my freedom.” Frustrated by the lengthy waiting list and selection process for the prison’s “Craft Shop,” where inmates have the opportunity to earn an income for their families or themselves when they get out, Burke has found what solace he can in his situation. “In my drawing lessons over the years,” he says, “I slowly found that any moment I wasn’t drawing was time wasted. My work improved, and I learned that once I understood how to achieve accuracy in drawing, I could create anything, which meant all sorts of excitement and pride of achievement.” Now, Burke estimates, “I work at drawing ten to fourteen hours a day, seven days per week. While I create artwork on a variety of subject matter, I especially enjoy creating extremely detailed Westerns depicting ranch scenes, rodeo, or Old West themes.”
But the sudden silencing of a decade’s worth of noise didn’t mean everything was fixed, or that Burke was whole and healthy again. “The task of rebuilding my sanity lay before me while I awoke to the fact that I faced spending the remainder of my life in prison,” he says. Fortunately, he had a tool for that rebuilding.
Perhaps not surprisingly for a man confined, Burke speaks eloquently on the evocative, escapist qualities of art. “I usually work in graphite or colored pencil,” he notes. “The black and white of graphite has the ability to transcend time, as well as create realistic textures that work well together with the detail to make you almost smell the leather, feel the heat of the day, or hear the pounding of hooves.”
“When I was eleven,” Burke remembers, “my mother bought me a sketchpad and charcoal pencils, say-
Right Page: Bandit
http://www.artbyjwburke.com/
http://www.artbyjwburke.com/
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Studio Visit J W Burke
http://www.artbyjwburke.com/
Right Page: Buck Left Page: Cougar
http://www.artbyjwburke.com/
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Studio Visit J W Burke
Right Page: Steer Wrestling Left Page: Will Rides a ‘94
http://www.artbyjwburke.com/
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Studio Visit J W Burke
http://www.artbyjwburke.com/
Burke feels that his Western art, more than other subjects, allows him to include a captivating level of detail that not only interests viewers, but “evokes emotions in the form of pride— deep pride earned from hard work, calluses, and lives well lived,” he says. “If you can make someone proud of themselves by what you have created, then you have created something more than art, something you can be proud of. This is the greatest payoff for an artist.” Though his portfolio covers a large number of subjects rendered in a variety of media, these Western graphite illustrations remain Burke’s favorites, the pieces that readily evoke that sense of pride. If Burke’s future is uncertain, his sense of purpose has not faltered. “My hopes are to create works of art of a quality worthy of being collected by an appreciative audience, and to earn a living through my art,” he says. “Regardless of what happens, I will continue to grow as an artist, and creating art will remain part of my life’s passion.” Very recently, Burke’s long-lost son was located. Now, in addition to saving for his own freedom someday, the artist has taken the long view of helping to put his child through college and saving for any future grandchildren. With this in mind, he advises that anyone wishing to support his artistic endeavors should feel free to write a favorable letter to the Texas Parole Board. “I’ve always wanted to live my life as a good father and husband,” Burke says, “and hopefully someday, when I pass away, I could do so knowing that I was loved and had loved, and that I had done my best to achieve things to be proud of.” A survey of his work—of the open plains of the Old West, as glimpsed from the cell of a penitent man—shows that he’s well down that trail already.
http://www.artbyjwburke.com/
www.artbyjwburke.com