I am a Californian who now resides in Seattle, Washington who makes work about place. I try to conjure an affection for our disorienting, layered, blighted, urban/suburban American places in my own attempt to understand why I both love and hate "America;” why I freak out with joy when I see the neon signage of a Cambodian-owned and operated beauty salon that advertises entirely in Spanish, but feel anguished by the same business' wonky parking lot. I worry that we've stripped the soul out of our American places and sacrificed our sense of place by designing a country obsessed with development and "growth” which translates to a collective life lived in cars. I enjoy representing places and things that are not nostalgiac per se, but everyday, unsightly, slightly deteriorating. I enjoy mundane places like auto shops, taquerias, and cleaners. In a country where the urban environment is not designed, messages get layered on top of one another to create a noisy collision of textures, colors, stylistic and cultural contrasts. In my art-making I pluck out of our often soul-less surroundings singular aspects in my search for something useful or even beautiful. I use patterns, colors, and text intended for commerce and transform them into decorative elements. I want to show the collision while bringing dignity and beauty to the whole mess.

Artist Bio

Kristen Ramirez was born in San Francisco, CA and raised in Sacramento, CA. She earned a BA from UC Santa Cruz, a MA in Education and California Teaching Credential from San Francisco State University, and a MFA in Printmaking from the University of Washington. Ramirez exhibits her work as much as she can in and around Seattle where she teaches at both Cornish College of the Arts and Pratt Fine Art Center. She lives in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood with her husband, Morgan, and their dog Loopy.