Conversations with Pamela Burgess

Today we’d like to introduce you to Pamela Burgess

Hi Pamela, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I made a career change to become an artist. After graduating from Carnegie Mellon University with a BFA in Graphic Design, I moved to Boston to open a design and illustration studio. Despite early success, I ultimately found the work unsatisfying creatively. Sitting on the couch one day during a break, I realized I wanted to be an artist. Finally, my head was filled with purpose and the joy of exploring ideas with my far-ranging imagination.

The decision to become an artist sent me on a zigzag journey to discover what that meant, how to get there, and how to pay for it. Thanks to all different kinds of remarkable people, places, and jobs, I have been able to put together a rich, cross-pollinating career, always evolving. Mostly, I followed my nose and remained open. And with some luck and drive, I’ve been able to accomplish some things.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
My path has been intermittently rough and smooth. Some obstacles I was able to work around, others not. The first body of work I made as an artist were temporary installations made of masking tape that I could roll up into a ball and discard. After that, I started making sculptures and became frustrated trying to get them to stand up. To learn fabrication techniques and improve my craftsmanship, I apprenticed with a shop for two years, and studied welding at night. I took on side orders, and it quickly grew into a full-time metal fabrication studio serving architects and artists.

It became a monster and a sidetrack. When the 90s recession hit, orders dried up overnight and I had to renegotiate the rent. I couldn’t afford a Starbucks coffee. It was one of the lowest points in my life. The positive? I walked away with the confidence that I could make anything I could envision, in any material or scale.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My work explores the concept, beauty, and meaning of landscape as seen through a personal lens. The fragility of life, and the beauty of impermanence are the underlying themes. California native plants and landscape are the focus.

I love materials, and with a range of skills and experience, I am able to express my ideas in different media including indoor and outdoor site-related installations, textiles, and sculptures; drawings and photography. My work has been shown in botanic gardens, galleries, libraries, museums, and artist run spaces.

Over the course of my career, I have formed relationships with local environmental groups. I was the inaugural Artist-in-Residence for Theodore Payne Foundation; later, I was a board member and chair of its Arts Council for six years. While serving on the board of Friends of Elysian Park for 22 years, the City of Los Angeles appointed me to the Elysian Park Master Plan Oversight Committee. Currently, I am the publisher of MoonMails, a popular free community eNewsletter dedicated to the Full Moon, which is celebrating its 20th Anniversary this year.

My creative universe is one where art, design, and writing intermingle. I created a retail line of basswood gift boxes named Wild Pods that were sold in high-end gift stores across the country and in Sundance Catalogue. Later, I repurposed the boxes as vases for dried plant material in a series of sculptures titled Ikebana Manzanita. Today, I am working on small textiles of flora related to my current writing project, the House of Many Doors.

Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
Sometimes, I encounter a work of art so moving I tear up. This is art at its best and it captures the feeling of what it’s like to be human. When I’m working on a piece of my own and it suddenly comes into focus with a certain clarity, I feel a moment of exhilaration—the work is finished and I stop. Afterwards, I can admire or respect what I’ve done but it’s already in the past and I’m looking forward now.

I have worked on many teams in my life. Not all of them have been great experiences. Occasionally, they can be extraordinary. Unlike anything else. There is a sense of belonging, immense pride in the quality of the work, and love emanating from the camaraderie and feel of the engine churning, energy vibrating.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://pamelaburgess.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pamelaburgessartist/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pamela.burgess.56