Canadian artist, Mary Anne Burke, draws inspiration from her experience living and working in Canada and abroad. She has degrees from McMaster and Carleton universities, an academic appointmet as a professor at OISE/UT in the Department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education,  and has worked globally  as a Statistician and Equity Expert for UN organisations. The “out-of-the-box” thinking she brought to her work is reflected in the fresh approach she applies to her oil, acrylic, graphite, coloured pencil and charcoal artwork.

Retirement and the Pandemic were exciting opportunities to focus on her artistic endeavours, exploring diverse mediums, styles and subject matter. Her works, created in response to increased social  isolation and restrictions during the Covid pandemic, were curated and displayed in Whitby, Ontario, as part of her Pencil and Paint Pandemic Porch Project during the summer of 2021 and her Unexpected Dialogues show in May 2022. These works sparked impromptu and unexpected dialogues on ties between art and mental/spiritual well-being, the natural world and community.

 Her works seamlessly merge high realism with mosaics and abstracts. They often feature the land, water, and sky and the creatures that share our environments. The dynamic whole reflects the complex inter-relationships among people and the natural world and Mary Anne’s commitment to healthy and sustainable living that supports human rights, equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Mary Anne currently lives in Ottawa in the Britannia area, with her husband, Joe, and works out of her home studio.