The Hearts Of The Arts: Amanda Burns—Art

The soft wood tones and the airy feel of Amanda’s display is ultimately inviting. But, there was no doubt that it is Amanda draws you into discovering her craft. When speaking to her, she was the embodiment of a ray of sunshine that casts a warm glow on every person she talks too. With this being said, I wanted to learn more about Amanda and the history behind her craft.

Her earliest memories of being an artist was when she was a child. She would often be at her mother’s office and find herself preoccupied with highlighters and colored pens when she was bored. She would “draw her heart out” with them, and then she would go over to the copy machine and copy them. She didn’t know what she was doing, but she feels as though she innately knew how to make prints of her work. Once they were done being copied, she would “…go around the office and ask people to buy my art, saying things such as ‘Twenty-five cents!’ and ‘Buy my art! Buy my art!’” Amanda believes that being an artist is “deeply rooted” in her.

Her current designs began in 2010, but she has been making jewelry since 2008. Amanda recalls that her urge to create is as “mysterious.” She says that it is a compulsion, and it is “…cool to take something that people don’t see as anything and then make it into something that is easier to appreciate.” Her current line is from electronics and she was a dating a guy who was a mailman and he would tell her where he found an old computer on the curb. She would then get the computer, rip it apart, and pull out some of the nuts and bolts. With the pieces that most people don’t know even exist within a computer or a television, Amanda finds them as something to make art from.

She has bounced back and forth, or as she describes it “pinballed” between different design tactics. Everything interests her deeply and that is reflected in her art. For example, she has dabbled in armor making because her friend was making a movie and she ended up doing all the leatherwork. She never worked in this type of design field before, but she was up for the challenge.

With the want for a challenge, she describes her creating process as “…seeing something and immediately thinking that this is something I could do and that I am going to do it.” With this mindset, she ends up having a lot of half-finished projects. But, also, she then expresses that this forces her creations to pull back and forth between light and dark and to play with different forms. It’s always an exploration of sorts to discover what she will create next because the process getting to her ideas are entirely “non-linear.”

Amanda’s other passions are traveling and food. She considers herself to be a “food tourist.” She will go to a place and refuse to eat something she has had before. She also loves to read and calls herself a “bookie.”

If interested in any of Amanda’s work, visit her website at amandaburnsart.com/commissions or email her at amandaburnsart@gmail.com.

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Written by: Christina Romeo

She is a 20 year old Long Islander that studies English up in
Albany. She has been writing creatively since she knew how to form
sentences. She is ultimately dedicated to catering to the writers,
poets, and English enthusiasts on her college campus. The club she is
dedicated to gives opportunities for students to hone their writing
skills and find their voice within the written word. When she isn’t
organizing events, she is cooking cruelty free recipes and tending to
her plants. She is endlessly passionate about the bridges between
political science, literary criticism, environmental studies,
women/gender studies, race, and philosophy. She is dedicated to serving
her community, both by being a voice and active member within it.
Contact her to write for you at christina.romeo5@gmail.com or visit her website here.