Objects with Opinions

Michael Burke Information and Pricing 978-1-64317-615-4 (paperback, $24.95) 978-1-64317-618-5 (hardcover, $34.59) 978-1-64317-616-1 (PDF, $19.95) 978-1-64317-616-1 (epub, $19.95) © 2026 by Parlor Press. 102 pages in color on cardstock, with original sketches Bookstores: Order by fax, mail, or phone. See our "Sales and Ordering Page" for details. Description An enchanting collection of drawings that invites readers to see ordinary objects as characters with voices, personalities, and opinions—and to rediscover the imaginative possibilities hidden in everyday life. Every object has a story. Some have opinions. What would a corkscrew say to a bottle? How does a ruler persuade a goat to join the journey? Why is an iron hiding behind a stack of mathematical dice? And who, exactly, needs a duck? In Objects with Opinions, artist Michael Burke transforms ordinary tools, household objects, toys, and forgotten artifacts into miniature dramas filled with wit, surprise, and quiet philosophical charm. Each carefully composed drawing is paired with a brief remark—sometimes playful, sometimes mysterious, sometimes gently absurd—that invites readers not merely to laugh, but to imagine. Rather than explaining his drawings, Burke leaves space for viewers to invent their own stories and conversations. Every page becomes an invitation to participate, to wonder, and to see familiar things with fresh eyes. Growing up in a family where conversation, metaphor, and perspective were everyday currency, Burke developed a lifelong fascination with the hidden relationships between objects, ideas, and people. In these pages he reminds us that imagination begins when the eye alights attentively. Funny, thoughtful, and beautifully understated, Objects with Opinions is a celebration of curiosity—and of the secret lives ordinary things may be living when no one is watching. MICHAEL BURKE has followed an unusually varied creative path. After working as an astronomer in the United States, Hawaii, and Iran, he earned a master’s degree in city planning, worked for the New York City Planning Department, and taught at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture and City Planning. He later turned to painting, drawing, sculpture, fiction, and poetry, exhibiting his work internationally while publishing novels and collections of verse. He developed a lifelong fascination with the hidden stories that ordinary objects can tell. Objects with Opinions brings together decades of artistic observation, visual wit, and imaginative play in a collection unlike any other.