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 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 teaches at Cornish College of the Arts.