Harry T. Burleigh

Country where you live:

Unite States

City where you live:

King George

Website:

https://art-mine.com/artists/harry-burleigh/

Statement :

Abstract and surrealistic works of art are thought to be esoteric in nature, and yet even within these groups, no two people will process what they are seeing in the same way.

For me, the adventure of creating, is not knowing exactly what or who will appear before my eyes until it occurs naturally. Not knowing if my three-dimensional pieces will look as immaculate as they did when I had first imagined them. Not knowing if photographs that I take will trigger the same visions or emotions in the viewer. The medium makes no difference as long as the inspiration is present. The enveloping mystery of not being sure of the results, yet still being driven to produce them is what makes the effort of creation so captivating. The process is therapeutic and personal.

I've had dozens of great teachers, most of whom had nothing to do with my formal education. Keeping an open mind and a creative spark have always led to new ideas and methods. Over the years, I've been inspired through an abundance of music, imagery, sounds, and from observing natural beauty.

My methods are perhaps a bit unconventional. In the instance of photograpy, I never go anyhere without a camera. I also never leave a photograph untaken. My reasoning for this is, over the years I have found that if I believe I can take the image at a different time, or on another day, something always ends up destroying it. The image is lost. These works are not planned in advance. I simply see them. I've spent years living with pareidolia, where by I see familiar faces and figures in random patterns, whether man made or occuring naturally.

In the instance of digital art, I use a three step process called tertiary compositing. This requires several physical pieces of art, a still camera, and computer software. The end result is a single image. Again, the overall thrill, is not knowing what the finished work will look like. Intuitively knowing when a piece is finished however, is key.

Quote:

"If only you could see what I've seen with your eyes." - Rutger Hauer - Blade Runner

Artificial Tears

This package of false eyelashes was spotted in a parking lot, complete with early morning condensation on the inside.

Exposing the Demon

This facial image was captured on the floor of a basement after a series of fluids had left the stains.

Red Light - Green Light

This image was captured whilst sitting in a vehicle, temporarily parked in an automatic car wash.

Abby Normal

This image was photographed at the end of a wood pile, in King George, VA.

Tribal Totem

This image was taken as light passed through a red, thermal-plastic beverage container.

Bio:

Harry T. Burleigh was initially inspired to sketch as a youngster when he saw the uniqueness in the designs on record album covers. Several years later, he attended his first art class as a junior in high school, where his teacher saw that he had a developing talent and encouraged him keep sharpening his skills. Many of these skills he sharpened in the margins of his notebooks during chemistry class.

From his youth, he had always believed that art could be produced from any idea or medium. Years would pass however, before he would feel that he had actually proven this to anyone. He became bored with representational art and the seemingly dull titles that accompanied so many of these images.

At the age of eighteen, Harry was accepted into the art program at West Virginia University. His philosophy at this time, was that it was wise to keep a pool of artistic influences, however foolish to compromise his own creative integrity in order to please the faculty.

Burleigh was constantly drawn to artists who's works involved beauty, strangeness, or emotion. While he did pay close attention to some of the greats, he often wondered why others had become so overrated. He also disagreed with the theory, that everything one might create has already been created in the past. Not so with surrealism he thought. Not so with abstracts, and while he wasn't intending to elicit a specific response from onlookers, he always had their subconscious impressions in the cross hairs. He later received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art.

After spending a year as a commercial artist for a local television station, Burleigh decided to stop doing art for others and to just do it for himself. This lead to an extended career in video production, where he found himself writing, producing, and directing. He would continue to do art on the side, but he never showed it to anyone for two decades.

In a twist of fate, while editing one day, Harry stumbled upon a new way to digitally combine imagery in a way that he had never seen it done before. He later tried the technique with a few of his old artistic works and found that it truly had merit.

Harry Burleigh's artwork has now been in the public eye since 2006, although he seldom shows it to the rest of the world. His immediate plans are to expand his body of work while refining some of his discovered techniques. In the end his intentions are to share his ideas openly so that other artists may benefit from and possibly improve upon them.