Michelle Bratsafolis and Dennis John Bourke Exhibition

National Academy

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MICHELLE BRATSAFOLIS was born in Brooklyn, New York and grew up on the North Shore of Long Island. She received her B.A. in American Studies from Brandeis University and her J.D. from Hofstra University School of Law. Michelle recently completed three years of study in the Studio Art Intensive program at the National Academy School in New York City. She has shown her work in numerous exhibitions and is an active member of the Brandeis University Arts Council.

“My artwork explores the themes of identity, communication, memory, and global migration. Whether painting, printmaking, creating cyanotypes, or sculptures, my work has focused on who we are; what we reveal about ourselves through our clothes, gestures, expressions, and carriage; what we think is worth remembering and why; how we choose to memorialize it; and, what we are willing to or want to forget. Intrigued by the tension between what is seen and what is not, I strive to balance the information that I put into a work with the challenge of mystery, sometimes eliminating details so that the viewer can imagine what is obscured and complete the story. The materials and processes chosen are those that reflect the transitory and imperfect nature of observation, memory, and life itself.”

Dennis Bourke was born in Detroit, raised on Long Island, and lived and worked in Brooklyn until starting a family and raising his children in the New Jersey suburbs where he has lived for the past 26 years.
He studied Fine Arts at SUNY New Paltz and Photography at the School of Visual Arts. He worked in set design and construction until finally deciding to join the National Academy to focus on his art full-time. He studied in the Studio Art Intensive program for the last three years during which he has received Academy scholarships including one to study abroad in Italy during the Summer of 2015.
He continues to make work in New York and from his home in New Jersey.

“Even as a kid I’ve always been attuned to what illustration is able to do—whether commercial or editorial, whether in a magazine or in a newspaper. Whenever I could, I would tear out and save pictures that I found particularly striking in the meaning they were able to convey. I have accumulated quite an extensive picture library.
Many of the pictures that I have saved have political undertones in one way or another; one might be sociological, another environmental, etc.
Thanks to the direction and encouragement that I’ve gained from the instructors at the National Academy, and as my technical skills have become more refined, I’ve begun to look at my own drawn ideas as illustrations that can then be translated into sculpture, which is often charged with the same political undertones.
My work is meant to make the viewers think. To make them wonder what their connection to its meaning might be.”