A lifetime of travel and study gives my work a rich, universal perspective. I was born in Ohio in 1938, a time when powerful changes were transforming rural America. Small farms were merging and becoming more mechanized; progressively larger machines were replacing horsepower. Fewer hands, like mine, were needed to help my family’s farm survive. Fortunately, my family gave me the gift of creativity. I was inspired by the music and art of my mother, aunt, and cousins.
After obtaining a BS at Ashland University in 1961, I spent a few years as an educator. In 1965, I made the difficult decision to become an artist and enrolled in the Cleveland Institute of Art. I became immersed in traditional studio practice, the legacy of the German Bauhaus of the ‘30s, and the Op Art movement of the ‘60s—gratefully receiving the solid training I would later find critical to all of my professional work. After graduating from the Institute with my second undergraduate degree (BFA, 1968), I set new goals: an MA and MFA from the University of California at Berkeley.
Obtaining a graduate degree in 1970 (fifteen years after I’d left the farmlands of my home) finally gave me the artistic sophistication I needed to launch my career as a professional artist. I moved to the Sunshine State to join the Art Department faculty at Florida State University. Here, I would spend 37 years creating, painting, building and teaching. Although I retired from teaching in 2007, I continue to live and work in Tallahassee, Florida.
My studio in the Railroad Square Art Park is near other artists, musicians, galleries, and eclectic businesses. My creative environment and my wonderful memories of earth, farms and family continue to fuel ideas for landscapes and color constructions. I see, create and invent through the prism of infinitely rich experiences.
Biography
Ray Burggraf
Tallahassee, Florida 2010
