Burckhardt, Marc 1962-

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Burckhardt, Marc 1962-

Personal

Born 1962, in Germany. Education: Graduated from Baylor University; graduated from Art Center College of Design, 1989.

Addresses

Home—Austin, TX. E-mail—[email protected].

Career

Artist and illustrator. Has worked as an instructor of illustration at New York's School of Visual Arts and Texas State University. Clients of commissioned artwork include Major League Baseball, Time, National Geographic, Bonny Doon Vineyard, Sony Records, Decca/Universal Records, Rolling Stone, and New York Times. Exhibitions: Work included in exhibitions at Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland, OH; Experience Music Project, Seattle, WA; and Art Basel/Miami, 2007-08. Work included in private collections of Johnny Cash, Oprah Winfrey, and Ralph Lauren.

Awards, Honors

Silver Medal, Society of Illustrators; Grammy Award for Best Limited-Edition Packaging, 2006, for artwork for The Legend: Johnny Cash; named Texas Biennial artist, 2009; Texas State Visual Artist nomination, 2009.

Illustrator

Diane Siebert, Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, Mondo (New York, NY), 2007.

Michael J. Rosen, A Drive in the Country, Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA), 2007.

John Carter Cash, Momma Loves Her Little Son, Little Simon Inspirations (New York, NY), 2009.

Contributor of artwork to The Greatest Album Covers That Never Were, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum (Cleveland, OH), 2003.

Sidelights

Although born in Germany to an American mother and a German father, artist Marc Burckhardt grew up in Texas, where his parents worked as university professors. As a child, Burckhardt spent many summers in Europe, where he was exposed to different types of art. Eventually he attended art school, and he blending those experiences with those he gained living in the American south. Consequently, note critics, Burckhardt's work features influences from many different cultures, from Flemish painters to Mexican folk artists. As an illustrator, his works have appeared in a variety of different formats, from paintings to accompany literary works published in magazines to posters for events such as Major League Baseball's World Series and gallery works that have been exhibited internationally.

Throughout his career, Burckhardt has also provided the jacket covers for compact-disc recordings of notable musicians, such as John Hiatt, Charlie Haden, June Carter Cash, and the late Johnny Cash. Through his relationship with the Cash family, he was also tapped to create the illustrations for Momma Loves Her Little

Son, a picture book written by June and Johnny's son, John Carter Cash. In Momma Loves Her Little Son, the author and artist combine to give young readers reassuring words about the enduring strength of a mother's affection for her child.

Burckhardt has also contributed illustrations to picture books written by other authors. In 2007, he joined with Michael J. Rosen to create A Drive in the Country, a work about a family's experiences on a drive one Sunday. Early in the morning, a family of five prepares the car for a sightseeing day trip, packing the car with games, snacks, and family's pet basset hound. Reflecting the days when families would pack into a car and set out without a particular destination in mind, A Drive in the Country offers a glimpse of an earlier era in the American car culture, where families would go for a drive just for the pleasure of being together. Electronic devices such as personal game systems and cellular telephones are noticeable absent in Burckhardt's images, replaced instead by entertaining diversions like stopping at a roadside fruit stand, collecting foliage from an open field, and wading in the shores of a small lake. Many reviewers offered warm words for this picture-book tribute to mid-twentieth-century American culture, some commenting favorably on Burckhardt's crackled acrylic paintings. According to a Publishers Weekly critic, "the exaggerated panoramas and the highly stylized characters … lend an almost surreal quiet to the pages." Writing in School Library Journal, Lauralyn Persson deemed the pictures "a good match" for Rosen's verse due to their "mellow earthy colors, deliberate yet fluid lines, crackled textures, and an open-road motif" that the artist continues across the pages. Similarly, a Kirkus Reviews contributor described the illustrations as "in perfect harmony with the author's idyllic reminiscence," claiming that Burckhardt's pictures "have a primitive yet retro sensibility." Summarizing the entire volume in a Booklist review, Julie Cummins described A Drive in the Country as "a freeze-frame moment of the good ol' days."