MICHAEL BURTCH: ARTIST

Throughout human history, the body has been the most resonant yet enigmatic symbol of our innermost being. It evokes fear, awe, pathos, the knowledge of mortality and our search for immortality, sexuality, sensuality and all the complex layers of meaning that lie between. Our fascination with the representation of the human figure is rooted in its ability to hold a mirror to our shifting, fragmented notions of self. It offers an elusive and unstable connection between the primal self and the public persona.
In spite of, or perhaps because of, the difficulty in locating the figures' precise significance in our dedicated understanding of existence, the figure still holds, and will always hold, its obsessive power.

My work is a continuing search for the physical signs of our spiritual state. The nude is both a timeless and time bound vehicle for that search.