Balancing act

BY ANNE CRUMP
Of The Examiner Staff

    Name: Jonah Burlingame
    Age: 34
    Neighborhood: Upper Noe

    Jonah Burlingame was born in San Francisco but grew up in Canton, Ohio.

    He studied graphic design and fine arts at Kent State University and moved back to The City nearly three years ago during the dot-com boom to take a job doing graphic and Web site design. He's currently employed in IT support, having picked up technical skills while learning Web design.

    You can see more of his artwork online at www.jonahburlingame.com.

    Getting started

    Both his parents, plus his grandmother, are artists, so Jonah Burlingame came to art naturally. "I was always surrounded by art," he says, "and I was always encouraged creatively. But I never knew I was a painter or an artist in particular."

    He didn't recognize the depth of his connection to art till college, when he picked up a canvas and paintbrush in a spontaneous fit of inspiration after reading a moving passage by Anais Nin. The materials belonged to his wife (his then-girlfriend), also an artist, and they were easily accessible. But painting also seemed like a natural outlet for his expression, despite the fact he didn't intend to paint anything specifically linked to what he had been reading.

    The experience ultimately sparked not only his interest in dedicating himself more to art but also his habit of using whatever materials are on-hand.

    On medium

    Burlingame uses acrylic paint, varnish, hollow door panels, squeegees, pop rivets and roofing cement, plus the occasional turkey baster, when making work. He picked up the unusual combination of materials during a period of home improvement projects in the basement of his house.

    "I put the paint down on the door, pulled the squeegee across it, and I liked what was happening. So I decided to seal it with varnish. Then I just kept doing it," he says. "I loved the way the layers of paint were suspended in the varnish and the way the colors reacted with the light."

    He now limits himself to working with these materials, primarily to impose self-discipline: "I get distracted easily, so I'm forcing myself to stick with this until I've exhausted it."

    That's not likely to be anytime soon. Burlingame says he's still fascinated with the effects he gets, and the surprises he discovers in the works' subtleties.

    On process

    The process is the driving force in Burlingame's work. "That's what inspires me each time."

    When he starts a painting, it's usually an outline of what the process should be, rather than a sketch of a composition -- instructions rather than images.

    "I try to just take so much of what I know into a scenario and see what I can do with it. I try to explore the subtleties within a group of elements," whether it be experimenting with matte and shiny finishes, lines and patterns, or just arranging familiar elements in new ways.

    "If there are themes, they're only color, balance, motion and light."

    He says his style is largely a reflection of his graphic design background, which taught him how to achieve visual balance without having to rely on symmetry. And he's still inspired by design elements.

     On style
  "I'm very influenced by color and interior design," Burlingame says. "Also, the paints themselves inspire me -- like the way a cadmium with lots of red reacts to the light when it's suspended in the varnish."

    While the specific color schemes he uses are sometimes derived from combinations he sees in people's homes, he notes that the color cues can come from anywhere -- from a puddle of radiator fluid on the street to a pattern in a little girl's skirt.

    Often, he has an assortment of color palettes and compositions in mind that are waiting to come together in the right combination. He'll hold these various components in reserve until he's satisfied he has a good match.

    "I want something energetic but that resolves itself through a balance that makes it visually appealing."

    The allure of art

    "What I really like is going down (into the studio) and getting lost for a while. I have everything prepared, I turn on some music, and just forget everything else."

    For Burlingame, painting is not a means of communicating a specific message. Rather, he prefers to let it evoke different emotions for each viewer. That's also why he likes to keep titles deliberately vague, so as not to dictate what someone sees.

    "That allows the viewer to dream or imagine, which to me is the whole point."