Jon

Jon West Burris

I was born and raised in southwest Oklahoma, and I believe I was born an artist. My father said he looked at my hands and felt I was gifted, but my lack of focus and strong desire to see new places kept me from seriously pursuing a career in art.

On the other hand, my aptitude for traveling to faraway places started at a very early age, as did my natural desire to tell stories, which, of course, ran in the family. As a child in a small rural community, I spent a lot of time with grand and great-grandparents and other old folks from the town, especially the old men who had coffee and swapped stories in the diner.

My imagination was filled with stories about ghosts, WWI, life on the frontier, and the time my grandma and grandpa were hit by a train while crossing the railroad tracks in their Ford Model T. (They survived with nary a scratch, and I have that same car’s Ford wrench here in my garage.)

My mother would get a little frustrated when she put me in time-out as I’d stand in the corner and withdraw into my interior world – telling myself stories and singing songs to pass the time. I also performed skits in the living room for my family, imitating Alfred Hitchcock. I figured as long as my sister was laughing, she wouldn’t be beating me up. Yes, she was that big sister.

I was also a good mechanic at a very early age. At 6, I took my first bicycle completely apart and reassembled it. I fell in love with its mechanics and its ability to take me places. With that bike (and without permission), I rode for miles all over town. This was in the 1960s, so it was relatively safe for a child to wander.

As time went by, I got my first kiss, played guitar in bar bands, graduated high school, fell in love, got brokenhearted, and became confident I could be a mechanic. I also needed to pay the bills, and I needed to get out of that little Oklahoma town. So, in October 1980, I walked into an Air Force recruitment office. When the recruiter asked what I wanted to do in the Air Force, I said, “Leave Oklahoma.” The first job open was as a fighter aircraft crew chief, and I took it. That’s when my adult life began.

I lived in Europe for a decade, served through the First Gulf War, and traveled to my heart’s content. I was stationed in Spain, Turkey, and England and took many other assignments across Europe.

The Air Force gave me discipline and comradery, and I grew as an aircraft technician. The European experience also helped me grow as a musician, and it was a fertile ground of history and culture that helped me grow as a creative writer. Playing in bands throughout this time came naturally to me, but I was a much better mechanic than musician, and perhaps a better musician than writer, but I grew nonetheless.

After 11 years, I was honorably discharged and returned home to begin the long process of re-Americanization. Leaving the military and returning home was a huge transition. I spent a decade or so in Dallas working successfully in music retail and met my wife and best friend, Amanda. Together, we moved to San Antonio to assist her aging parents, and I worked another decade in aircraft maintenance, launching and recovering training flights until my old knees couldn’t take it anymore.

Those years, as a child in Oklahoma, a young man in Europe, a bachelor in Dallas, and a husband and grandfather in San Antonio, have given me countless stories to tell.

Now, with time and experience, Amanda and I are completely focused on art. Be it film, photography, writing, or music. Everything you see from this studio is real and true. And though I’m known to enhance a story, everything we do is from the heart. Please enjoy and share.

JON