E. TYLER BURTON

E. Tyler Burton brings an intuitive sense of stillness and complexity to her compelling sculptures and mixed media works. Her work often tackles important issues in a subtle way. Her materials are simple: clay, paper, found objects or basic building supplies.

Burton, a Los Angeles and Palm Springs based artist, graduated with a BFA in photography from Brooks Institute in the late eighties.  Her career in commercial photography expanded when she was exposed to the tactile process of ceramics at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico in the early 90’s.  Her first elongated figures, inspired by Cycladic, Etruscan and native work, soon grew to full size pieces.  She then went on to study under Cristina Cordova, Frank Phillips, Lisa Clague and Paul Soldner.

Her current work is centered around water and our human impact on the environment.  She explores this subject with eerie cyanotype prints, large scale hand coiled figures, glaze encrusted ceramic water bottles and found glass melted into forms. Her work is both serene and provocative, encouraging contemplation.

Burton finds inspiration in simple materials. Her studio is filled with found objects, metals, glass, and hardware items.  Her process flows from step to step influenced by the textural and visual qualities of these elements.  

Burton is collected both nationally and internationally. Her work has been in many exhibitions including The American Museum of Ceramic Art, The Whyte Museum of Canada and The Palm Springs Art Museum Artist Council show. She has been granted numerous residencies to The Banff Art Centre in Banff Canada

Artist's Statement

My recent sculpture and photography work is a culmination of ideas exploring issues of the environment and the human impact on it. I have chosen the material of ceramin to suggest the characteristics of stability and fragility. The surfaces of my sculptures are often left raw of color and glaze suggesting an honesty or Zen like quality. Each sculpture is hand built, mainly using thick coils and once fired.

My cyanotypes are ususally made using some form of plastic...plastic from the oceans or the dumps. This one is bubble wrap.

Sourcing inspiration from teh mountains, the desert, and the sea, I try to imbue my work with a sense of hopefulness and power that will rise above the existing environmental, social and political conditions and lift the human condition past its present challenge and into a future expansion.