Digital dreamers

Victoria Monroe and Dave Burdick make a stunning pair—a small, curvy woman with long blond hair and perfect posture next to a darkly handsome man with a relaxed manner. They met a couple years ago and became inseparable.

“He was pouring some wine [at an Italian restaurant],” Monroe says. “I just happened to see this handsome, debonair chap behind the bar.”

And he turned out to be so much more than just a man of wine. Burdick has worked as a graphic designer for the last 25 years, mostly doing high-tech consulting with automobile manufacturers and airlines. Perhaps he was not even aware he was in need of a muse. Then Monroe, a model and actress, came into his life—and his artistic consciousness. B&M Artistic Expressions was formed.

Burdick began photographing Monroe and digitally integrating the photographs into a variety of images of nature, from streams to waterfalls to forests. Some are trompe l’oeil works, featuring dazzling landscapes that harbor barely perceptible outlines of Monroe’s form. In most, however, Monroe is the clear star, with flowers, sunsets and beaches as a backdrop for showcasing her curves. Burdick experiments with Monroe’s form, using techniques that cause her to appear at times translucent and at times bronzed, almost statuesque. The couple says they come up with a lot of “happy accidents.”

Monroe is either unclothed (with her nether regions obscured) or scantily clad in many of the works, but the couple stresses that their work is in no way meant to appear pornographic. Monroe says that, as a model, she tries to portray a range of emotion, both in her poses and her facial expressions, rather than an overt eroticism.

“Most of the [works] are visually appealing and have an undercurrent of sexuality,” Burdick says. “But they’re not erotic.”

The works will be on display at Amaranth Gallery through July 10, with opening receptions June 21 and 22. Burdick and Monroe are donating 5 percent of the proceeds from the sale of their artworks to the Angel Kiss Foundation, a non-profit organization that helps ease the financial burden of families who have children with cancer.

“Nobody helps the kids that fall through the cracks,” says Angel Kiss treasurer Renate Neumann. “We help the families with what they need most. We pay car payments, rent …”

As for Burdick and Monroe, they have much more than just art on their plate right now. The two will marry in August.

“He proposed to me 30,000 feet in the air,” Monroe says. “It was on a business trip [to Paris].”

“I figured she had to say yes—I had a captive audience," says Burdick with a grin.