Artist Statement
I am a Californian who now resides in Seattle, Washington. I make 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.
Artist Bio
Kristen Ramirez 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 teaches and manages a summer pre-college program at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, WA.