I’ve done drawings on old book pages for about 15 years, when it occurred to me to start using the covers of all the books I was cannibalizing. I’d just finished a body of work that was large, sculptural, and rather conceptual and I longed to work quickly on some small works after that previous experience. I wanted to whip through these works, responding to the found color of the book covers and edit heavily afterwards.

The imagery has echoes of some previous work, using canvasses and pallets as main characters, incorporating an ongoing interest in Tantric art. The works have a dual nature, using one side book cover and paint and one side endpaper with colored pencil and/or ink. The challenge for me is to decide how to balance the integration or tension between the two sides.

Tom Burckhardt  2009

October 2009