The planet and it’s people are constantly changing, and Diane Burko is helping us bear witness to it through her unique and beautiful way to documenting our world and climate change in her paintings and photographs. As a life long environmentalist and and advocate for indigenous rights, Diane encourages others to take in the world around us and work toward protecting it together. Her inspirational "time-based media" and collaboration with scientists to analyze and disseminate information has helped to educate viewers about the changes we are seeing on this planet. And while it might feel like a tough battle, Diane feels so much hope for the younger generations and their passion for our planet. Please read on to find out more about Diane Burko and how she sees the world.

Where are you based?
Philadelphia, PA

What inspired you to focus your art on geological landscapes?
I grew up in New York City and have always loved the wide open landscapes you can never find there. So my focus began as a love or an appreciation. I wanted to paint landscapes because I wanted to look at them. Then as I got to know different landscapes more intimately, I began to really care about their evolution, their histories and futures, and the struggles they faced.

For the past 20 years, you’ve been creating art while traveling the globe. How would you describe the steps you use to generate fresh ideas? Which place most resonated with you?
Each research project led to the next because I was exploring different angles of climate change, starting with melting glaciers, moving into coral reef degradation and ocean ecosystems, and now moving into the deforestation and extractive mining happening in the “lungs of the world,” the Amazon Rainforest, and impacting all the life in the Amazon river basin.

So my interest in a certain place would begin because it was representative of an issue (rising temperatures, ocean health, extractive industry) so I zeroed in on key locations that would help me better understand and represent the issue. In terms of places that resonated with me – I loved Iceland. The waterfalls there took my breath away. And I loved exploring volcanoes – It’s a wild experience to walk up to the crater of a volcano and feel the intense power lying just under the surface. As well walking on a glacier at the top of the world in Svalbard was also a thrill…

What is the most valuable lesson you learned on your adventures?
I have learned again and again that bearing witness to the land changes everything about your understanding of it. It’s great to do research from afar, but once you’re actually there, the land often has a voice of its own, a quality of air, a quality of light that is emotional and intuitive. It’s important to be there, be present, and learn from your senses. I’ve also gained knowledge from the people there, the inhabitants and the researchers.

Your time-based media, Lenticular, is a beautiful presentation. Can you tell us the story behind this piece? What message do you hope to send?
My Lenticular series is a collaboration with artist Anna Tas. We’re focused on abstraction and movement in these works. When you are in front of a Lenticular hanging on the wall, the image is still when you’re still but it ripples and swirls when you walk by. We used still shots of liquid paint swirling to complicate the viewer’s sense of scale, sense movement and to evoke changes in the landscape.

We found it fascinating how you work with researchers to incorporate science into your art. What inspired this pairing?
Art and science have a lot in common: experimentation, inquiry, learning by making guesses and figuring out the explanation later. But they also have a lot of differences; they give the public very different information. Scientists publish research that is usually very specific, very honed in on a certain context or experiment, and it might require a lot of explanation or background knowledge to get the point across. It is usually written for their peers. Art can leap over detailed explanation and engage directly with the audience’s emotions. Art can make you feel something without quite knowing why you’re feeling it; so then you backtrack and get into the details or look at the research. So I think these two research methodologies can work really well together to get the public motivated to take action about climate change, or any issue.

The American University Museum featured, Seeing Climate Change, the culmination of your 20 years of work. How has your art evolved with the climate?
That’s complicated question to answer succinctly. I prefer you refer and make your own conclusions.

What are some of the biggest takeaways you have learned from documenting our planet during global warming?
The world is much more connected than we can even imagine. No place is isolated; we’re a global ecosystem and an issue impacting one geographic location or one group of people will inevitably spiral outwards to impact others, further away. There is no “here” and “over there” that can really be separated from each other.

On a scale of 1-10, how scared are you about our future?
I stay hopeful because I believe in humanity, and particularly the youth of today.

For the past 20 years, you have focused on environmental issues. Why is it important to you? What prompted you to focus on this particular subject?
I was a landscape painter for a long time – I spent decades both being inspired and awe-struck by the beauty of the natural world, and simply paying attention to the land. When you give something that much attention, it’s hard not to care about its wellbeing. I started noticing that the landscapes I had always admired were changing – starting with snowcaps on mountains and glaciers. So I began to document those changes. I started to incorporate data about climate change into my images, started doing research about the impacts of climate change on different ecosystems around the world. I want my paintings to help people focus their attention on the beauty and mystery of the natural world around them, and on the precarity of it all. I want to inform people about the dangers faced by both the landscape and its people, especially Indigenous people around the world, when extractive industry enters the picture.

We noticed how you lecture at universities in addition to using your art to disseminate your messages. What are your hopes for future generations?
Yes, I was a teacher at the Community College of Philadelphia for 30 years. I love working with students. Different generations have so much to share with each other, so much to teach each other. I’m excited for the young adults growing into climate advocacy because they tend to see things clearly. They don’t have the mindset that something might not be good for the planet, but you can push off the consequences. They know that the consequences of past generations’ actions are arriving for the youth to deal with. It’s completely unfair, but this new generation has a clear head about it. They get the urgency upon us all. I hope that future generations will be brave and principled in their defense of our collective ecosystems. I hope that as the world becomes more “global” through the internet and communication systems, new generations will understand without effort that the whole natural world is connected; you can’t wound the planet in one place and expect not to feel it elsewhere. I have a lot of hope for future generations.

What would you like to see more people do to help the planet?
I would like to see more people use their voices to advocate for the wellbeing of the planet and the Indigenous nations who protect the land. They can use their voices in any way – I make artwork, other people might get involved in journalism or creative writing, other people in scientific research or political action. And everyone must vote.

You have been deeply committed to numerous connected issues for a long period. Any shoutouts to any non-profits you are currently working with or would like to promote?

Do you have any exciting new projects you would like to share?
I’ve been working on research and paintings about the Amazon Rainforest since 2021, and am taking that remote research to the next level of “bearing witness” by traveling to the Amazon this summer. I’ll be a resident at LABverde near Manaus, Brazil, and will continue my research from there.

It has been a crazy past few years, how have you been staying positive?
I’ve been staying grounded by diving into my work, both my painting and my public-facing climate advocacy. I’ve been spending as much time as I can outside, working with my hands in the garden.

What is your motto in life?
“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” – Anais Nin

To learn more about Diane Burko, please follow the links below:
Diane Burko
Instagram: @dianeburko

Diane Burko - Encapsulating Time Through Art