Artist Bio
Ronnie Burak was born and raised in Philadelphia. She has lived throughout the United States, including in San Francisco, in Tuba City on a Navajo reservation in Arizona, in Bennington, Vermont, and in Atlantic Beach, Florida. Presently, she spends part of the year in Philadelphia and part of the year in Vermont in Brownsville.
She received her BFA in painting from Boston University and obtained a graduate certification in art therapy from Hahnemann Medical School. She went on to earn her MA and PHD in Psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology. Over the course of 30 years in practice as a psychologist, Ronnie has brought a strong influence of her training and background as an artist into her therapeutic work.
Ronnie is now focusing her own creative work through the medium of photography. She enjoys photographing both the human and natural landscape.
Her work has been exhibited in a variety of venues and galleries and has won multiple awards. Ronnie won first, second, and people’s choice awards for Photojax — a city wide celebration of photography in Jacksonville, Florida. She also won first prize for her exhibit at Arts in the Park in Florida in Atlantic Beach.
Artist Statement
As a photographer who enjoys capturing the spontaneous moments, I am drawn to both urban and natural environments.
The urban environment fascinates me with all its characters. Each person has a story that can be told in a visual moment in time. The non-human aspect of the urban environment also has its own narrative, full of rich culture unique to that place.
The natural environment also captivates me with beauty untouched by human hands. I am drawn to both big and small; the majesty of the large panoramic landscape and the exquisite design and detail of nature's small elements.
Photography, for me, is a mindfulness meditation. When I am fully in the present moment, the ordinary becomes the extraordinary.