MY COMMITMENT TO WATER:
My practice sits at the intersection of art, science, and the environment, and aims to target issues of climate change. Thus, water is integral to this focus.
Throughout the many decades of my career, bodies of water, (primarily observed from above) have fascinated me – from oceans along the coasts of California, Maine, & Nova Scotia, to Europe and Iceland. Rivers have been another source of inspiration, particularly in the 1980’s when working on my Waterways of Pennsylvania project. The Bayous of Louisiana, the Everglades of Florida, as well as the Geddes Run Creek on my Bucks County property have also fed my photography and painting practice.
However, in the last twenty years, my obsession with water has evolved from a more purposed study of frozen waters witnessed in the Arctic and Antarctic, and melting ice sheets of Greenland, Antarctica and Patagonia to the tropical waters of the Pacific. I particularly investigated coral reef areas, as I continued to bring attention to the threats of climate change. Most recently, I have been focused on the Amazon River in South America, mostly in Brazil where multiple threats–from extreme temperatures resulting in dramatic droughts, to electric dams, illegal extractive mining activities, and, most recently, the specter of oil drilling off Atlantic coast at the mouth of the Amazon.
Water continues to be a throughline, especially as I continue my bearing witness to other Amazon locations, while also embarking on the dire issue of flooding caused by unprecedented extreme weather events here in the USA.
Diane Burko
@dianeburko
www.dianeburko.com
However, in the last 15 years, my water obsession has evolved into a more purposed study of frozen waters witnessed in the Arctic and Antarctic, as well as the melting ice sheets of Greenland, Antarctica and Patagonia. The tropical waters of the Pacific Oceans, the home of most coral reefs are also sources of study as I continue to bring attention to the threats of climate change.