Timothy Burke

I have been creating art in Detroit for the past 40 years. I have been a one-man recovery and preservationist of story buildings that have been torn down in Detroit. I use pieces of the buildings within my artwork. I have been passionate about art ever since my brother took me to the Detroit Institute of Arts when I was 10 years old. I was in all of the sculptures, especially The Thinker in front of the DIA, and then Henry Moore's reclining female, carved out of wood. I recovered 10 tons of granite from the renovation of the Detroit Institute of Arts. I've included pieces of the granite in sculptures that I've made, as well as furniture. My tables and functional furniture were for sale in the Detroit Institute of Arts gift shop for two years. My jewelry was also for sale in the gift shop of the DIA for two years. I have a couple of other notable public art pieces outside of the apartments on Trumbull in Forest Avenue a large metal flower sculpture that I made with metal that I recovered from the JL Hudson's building, the Studebaker car company, and the Packard Motor Car Company. I have four of my robot creatures in the Lafayette Greens Garden downtown Detroit. I also restored the tiles of the Gratioit Central Market after the devastating fire of 1995 I completed my portion of the restoration of the beautiful terra-cotta tiles on the front of the building in 1999. My home and studio sculpture garden was on Heidelberg Street for 18 years. My current home studio sculpture garden is on Phillips street in Detroit.