Fiercely grounded in material, form and scale, Jamie Burnes' work speaks of loss, discovery and integrity.
His sculpture, hard-edged, masculine and dedicated to his personal dialogue with wood and metal, speaks insistently of remembered and honored fundamentals. The grace and fleetness of a horse, a bears’ lumbering solidity, the mythical proportions of an archetypal bull, and more recently the duality of universal forms, like the spiral and cone, are all in his informed studio repertoire.

The journey was begun and nurtured by family and home. Jamie’s father, a staunch supporter of environmental issues, and director of Earthwatch, gave him a love of the natural world in all its complexities. His mother, a poet, educator and wordsmith filled the home with her own intense love of animals, objects and family. But most influential was the home itself. This 19 Century, 35 ft., high and 80 ft. long barn conversion, filled with pets, pianos, wagons, silver and costume, was an irrefutable artistic nursery sowing the seeds of Burnes' and his silversmith sister, Hannah's, creativity.
His burgeoning talent began with boy’s works of go-carts and stone forms. As a middle schooler he got a job with bronze sculptor Adio Dibiccari – and Burnes admits, ”In 7th grade, art was the only class I paid attention to.” His formal education then took him to Middlesex School and Skidmore College.

At first eschewing art for engineering, physics and math, Burnes soon found himself living in Skidmore’s sculpture Studio, eventually augmenting his studies by becoming a sculpture class teaching assistant. In 1997 he received an honors degree and chose not to go the professionally secure route of further education. Much to his professors’ dismay, he abandoned their graduate school support and elected to spend quality time with his terminally ill father, and establish his studio in Weston, Mass.

This decision has been pivotal to his development. Jamie has worked as an independent, removed from the artistic community which might have launched his career. He has forged a personal path, that in 1998 was recognized by The Cabot Corporation commissioning his first public work, 'Cabot Man', made of stainless steel boiler parts, oak and bronze.
Fortune then further touched him through an invitation to show at Shidoni Arts, a well known sculpture park in northern New Mexico. Here his “Elk’ earned the patronage of Gene Hackman. This celebrity purchase gave Burnes’ work the proverbial ‘leg up’ to be noticed and supported by galleries across America ( L'Attitude gallery, Boston, MA, Mainview Gallery, Scottsdale AZ, Shidoni Arts, Tesuque, NM, Gallery MAR, Park City, UT).

In the ensuing twelve years James’ work developed from his original influences of Cubism, Naturalism and the Dada movement to a more personal and considered dialogue with material form and scale.
His focus is to create a continuing dialogue between the sculpture and the viewer. Here, he states, wood and metal become representations and symbols of the life we live, and his subjects serve as reminders that we are all part of the the natural world. His primary aim is to remain true to the integrity of his ideas and hope that through ‘striking and pounding’ he creates and delivers a message beyond the sum of the works’ parts.
James Burnes’ recognition expands, as does his enthusiasm for his profession. He is currently working in New Mexico and Massachusetts on both large scale public installations and more intimate gallery pieces. His focus is, as it always has been, to create a purposeful communication between viewer, idea, and sculpture. This he does with humble grace. The works speak, and long may their conversations continue.

P.A. Hardenburg
Sculptor, International Baccalaureate Art Examiner