Maihyet Burton



For Maihyet Burton, art has been a way of life. Although not formerly trained, as the daughter of noted Canadian painter Dennis Burton and installation artist/OCAD instructor Diane Pugen, she received much of her education growing up in a home that doubled as a multi-media studio.

Burton’s first love of the visual arts is photography, through which she has explored both landscape and portraits. Her newer work includes maternity photography, with luxurious and haunting depictions of the pregnant female form.

Most recently, she has turned her attention toward the canvas, utilizing a multi-media approach involving paints, needle and thread and photographic collage. Her abstract, often childlike illustrations seek to juxtapose dream imagery with harsh reality, the dark and scary with the fanciful and joyous, and nature with the supernatural.

Her work has been exhibited in galleries throughout Toronto and Montreal.

Meanwhile, Burton has worked for over a decade as a designer, manufacturer and retailer of women’s and children’s clothing, and is the owner of Lilith on Toronto’s Queen St. West.