Michael Burke's art reflects his unusually rich and intellectually diverse background.  He was exposed to the linguistic concept of man as a symbol-using animal by his father, the well-known philosopher and critic, Kenneth Burke.  He was made aware of a culturally diverse universe through the work of his sister, the anthropologist Eleanor Burke Leacock. 
 
 
 

Michael Burke developed his perceptions of space and time in his study of architecutre at Harvard and in the graduate program of Urban Studies at Columbia.  He joined the Astrophysical Observatory of the Smithsonian Institution as a member of a team that established and operated astronomical observatories in Hawaii, Greece, and Iran. Until 1975, Burke taught classes in urban planning and environmental studies at Columbia University.  Since then, he has devoted himself full-time to his art.