The Daily Palette Vintage

JAMIE BURMEISTER
Star Spangled Banner, graphite and paint on board, 24'' x 49'', 2006

Jamie Burmeister's sculptures have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in galleries and museums throughout the Midwest, including the Des Moines Art Center in Des Moines Iowa, the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha, Nebraska, and the Sioux City Art Center in Sioux City, Iowa.  Jamie has produced sculpture for various public sculpture exhibits, including "Washburn University Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition" in Topeka, Kansas and "Wind and Water" and "Elements" in Omaha, Nebraska. Mr. Burmeister is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Trickey Memorial Award, Woods Fellowship and Lewis Art Scholarship. He was born in Harlan, Iowa in 1969 and currently lives in Gretna, Nebraska with his wife, Kelli, and two children, Makenzie and Jackson. Jamie is an Art Instructor at Metropolitan Community College in Omaha, Nebraska.

This is a drawing of the melody of the "Star Spangled Banner." Each note is represented by a circle. The color of each circle represents the pitch of the note and the size of each circle represents the length of the note.

About his work, Jamie writes, "[a]s I go through my everyday life, I am drawn to seemingly uninspiring observations and experiences, such as watching a bug walking across a leaf, riding a bike, taking apart a machine to see how it works or pondering a question from my child which I just cannot answer.  These simple occurrences inspire me to explore these ideas further through art.  Through experiments with sculpture, installation, mechanics, electronics, computers, the Internet, interactivity, sound and video, I have put together a diverse body of work that revolves around my conscious experience of the world.  All of these pieces have elements of humor, absurdity and the mundane.  Many of the pieces are interactive, creating situations where the viewer becomes a part of the piece.  The experience of the work is unique depending upon how the viewers choose to interact with it.  I place common everyday items in situations that give them characteristics of human behavior.  By merging new digital technologies with old mechanical technologies I animate these humble materials seeking to change their context.  The resulting videos, sculptures, and installations are metaphors for various aspects of the human condition."

(This page was originally published on April 27, 2009.)

Jamie Burmeister's website