Carlos Ramirez

Stories From Neighborhood Walks: The beauty of venturing out on foot with no particular agenda ... the rhythmic, meditative cadence sets a pace for appreciating the simple pleasures that nature offers. Those images and colors that serendipitously appear before us stop us in our path, forcing us to look — not just see. Visual cues become snapshots that are lodged in the corners of the brain to be accessed later by the subconscious. Venture out; beauty is everywhere.

“Not all those who wander are lost.”
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I am a Cuban born painter that was raised in Miami. My work is a visual blog of the world around me; capturing those moments that have become rooted in my memory. I am not interested in replicating nature, but rather the bits and pieces that have struck a cord with me. I am drawn to its expanse, color and all encompassing aspect that makes us feel small. I am looking to explore nature in its totality, not merely the visual aspect, but what it says to me.

Color is integral part of my work. Unlike many other painters I come from a fashion background; for years I designed for my own label in NY. That experience coupled with having been raised in the tropics have shaped my perception and use of color.

My work plays the edge between abstraction and representational. Ink sketches within the work depicting leaves, petals, stones loosely reference nature, while the underlying structure and palette remain rooted in abstraction. This contrast between the recognizable and the obscure allows for the viewer to connect with the work on various levels.

I presently live and work in Tucson, out of an airy light-filled studio that looks out to the mountains on one side and a sky-blue pool on the other.

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