Diane Burko, Mars: Cinq

"I want to seduce the viewers with my painting of the landscape and then subtly engage them in contemplating its survival. Beauty and desolation, life and death all conflate for me at this moment in time as the concept of mortality personally and globally dominate my creative impulse."
-Diane Burko

A dramatically high horizon line, dense energetic lines, and the reflection of the sky in the lower part of this painting create a dizzying effect, where the real and the remembered coalesce. The opalescence and the refractive water, with its blending of branches, thickets, and flowers, offers up rich visual surprises, something the artist is very interested in.

Diane Burko's work has been exhibited around the world and she is represented by Locks Gallery in Philadelphia. She has received numerous awards including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women's Caucus for the Arts. She also received the "One Percent” Public Art Commission award from the Redevelopment Authority of Philadelphia to create a massive mural in the circular lobby of Philadelphia's Marriott Hotel in 1996.