Morgan Burke

the tower

This project is the culmination of a year’s work as my final thesis project at OCAD University. It’s a work of love for the odd, the fantastic, the cruel, and to my boyfriend, who I hope never changes. The work is inspired from medieval mystic illustration and stories, to modern fantasy and genre illustration, bringing the strangeness of history to a modern viewpoint.

The Tower is a series of digital illustrations that takes motifs and symbols from both history and fantasy, twisting mundane experiences of change and mourning into fantastical art. Each work explores different facets of historic Hermetic mysticism and early religion, questioning if the history of change is so different to our experiences in the present.

Each piece is a story of someone experiencing or caught up in the inevitable passage of time. Each is different, but the past is always right behind you.

Digital illustration, 2023-2024.

The artist

Morgan Burke is a digital illustrator and writer with a great love of all things cinematic, atmospheric, and purple. Their work is an exploration of storytelling through image.

Find them on Instagram.

Prints from this project are available at GRADEX 109 at the Illustration & Graphic Design Print Shop in room 600, opposite the express elevators to the 6th floor, in limited stock. Following GRADEX 109, prints & zines will be available online starting summer 2024.