Marka Burns

I received my BFA from the Chouinard Art Institute and an MFA from California State University Long Beach. I taught art education and fine art at CSULB for 35 years.

My current series “The Dada Surreal” is inspired by artists Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp and Rene Magritte all of whom profoundly changed the art world in the 20th century. Dadaism was an art movement born during the years of World War I and was devoted to breaking from traditional aesthetics and language. Surrealism is defined as a 20th-Century avant-garde art movement that sought to release the creative force of the unconscious mind through an irrational juxtaposition of images.

I was guided and inspired by these artists.

“I paint what cannot be photographed, that which comes from the imagination or from dreams, or from an unconscious drive.”
Man Ray

“You have to approach something with indifference, as if you had no aesthetic emotion. The choice of ready-mades is always based on visual indifference and, at the same time, on the total absence of good or bad taste.”
Marcel Duchamp

To be a surrealist means barring from your mind all remembrance of what you have seen and being always on the lookout for what has never been.
Rene Magritte

To quote Anais Nin. Understanding language is not useful in most deep creative processes.” In the spirit of Nin’s powerful quote I find recurring theme and inspiration in my work is the mutable nature of memory. Knowing that it is unlikely that memories are always true I try to inhabit that uncertainty as a source of creativity where memories are fragile, ephemeral and changeable. Being able to capture that creative moment of insight is magical!

My work is created and inspired by intentionally presenting the viewer with unusual combinations of images free of conventional meaning.