Contact Information:

email: Michele Ramirez
website: www.micheleramirez.com

Artist Statement:

Painting is a joy. It is also work, and I work everyday. My ethic is inspired by the rural farming community to which I was born. My grandparents grew and harvested the crops of California's Central Valley. I grew up surrounded by natural color fields. The geometric structures and planes forming the wide-open landscape of my youth have always captivated me. So too have the people inhabiting this panorama.

I have great reverence for the human form and its varied manifestations: young, old, agitated, at peace. The simplest gestures often convey a person's natural dignity. These gestures bear the weight of my compositions. Color ties them to emotion. In my paintings, elements of abstraction and formal structure are incorporated to lend ambiguity to the implied narrative of each piece and encourage the viewer to form his or her personal interpretation.

My current body of work concerns those who labor in the critical industry of agriculture in California. I hope my art allows for a different perception of people who, despite their critical role in our economy, remain largely invisible. While these subjects have been my focus in previous series, the present attention given to the issue of immigration and undocumented workers renders them particularly relevant at this time.

Application | Previous Recipients | George Sugarman Artworks | About the Foundation