John Rux-Burton
Artwork for John Rux-Burton
Details
How would you describe the work you do and why?
Corrupter of Words Enchanter of Images Garden Alchemist As an artist, I want to be a catalyst, a provocateur, a questioner; an opener of dialogues. I make images that invite the viewer to find among the abstraction moments of recognition. I make poetry about fragments, again inviting the reader to create a world beyond the page. In satire I look at how people make meaning… and the absurdity (and loveliness) that ensues. You will find galleries, poems, extracts from my fiction on my website. Plus, a page thanking all the people who help me create my mitate-mono symbolic installation in Kington, The Welsh Marches Japanese Garden - Where the Whale Talks to the Stars
For you what does being an artist mean?:
“The world exists to make artists so artists can make new worlds” ~ Sir Clough Williams-Ellis
CV & Education, relevant & leading to your artistic practice:
In the 1990s I studied English at the University of Oxford, where I won the Violet Vaughan Morgan Prize, and later gained a First in Script Writing at the Oxford University Creative Writing Summer School.
My photographic work has been exhibited widely and recognised internationally. In 2009 I was a Section Winner in Digital Camera Photographer of the Year — at that time the world’s largest photography competition, with more than 20,000 entries. This helped lead to shows in Melbourne and distinctive galleries in the UK.
I am also the author of From the Marches to the Sea, a dual-language book of words and images exploring Mid-Wales, from border to coast.
After many years in the Cotswolds, I now live in the Welsh Marches, inspired by my Japonaiserie garden 'Where the Whale Talks to the Stars'. From my studio there, I continue to write and produce digital imagery, and to collaborate with other artists.
There is another important honour I should mention. Aged eight, I was awarded a Silver Blue Peter badge — an achievement impossible to surpass. (Well, they’re hardly going to give me a gold one, are they?)