Michelle Ramin
In times of transition, I often return to the self-portrait. After months of being bombarded by Zoom calls, mobile news articles, social media pings, and seemingly infinite layers of open laptop windows, I chose to depart from my recent abstract oil painting and revisit drawing in color pencil. Rendering reality as it is observed has been a meditative process throughout my life, creating a clear way to process and analyze what’s in front of me. As each saturated rectangle upon rectangle screams with to-do lists - showing no clear delineation between physical and digital space - the beginning of this new body of work reveals how completely flooded my brain has become amidst a worldwide, perpetual pandemic.
Emachines and Lilacs, color pencil on paper, 30" x 22", 2021
Zoom Call Self-Portrait with DL and Ozma, color pencil on paper, 22" x 30", 2021
Hailing from the mountains of North Central Pennsylvania, Michelle Ramin received her BA from Penn State University and her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. Ramin has exhibited nationally, including at Southern Exposure in San Francisco, SOHO20 Chelsea Gallery in NYC, Jonathan Ferrara Gallery in New Orleans, The Pennsylvania College of Technology, and Russo Lee Gallery in Portland, OR. Ramin’s work has been featured in such publications as New American Paintings, SF Weekly, Beautiful Decay, and Art Ltd. Magazine, to name a few. Ramin was also awarded the prestigious San Francisco Bay Guardian 2014 Goldie Award for Excellence in Visual Art, and her work is included in the Jimenez-Colon permanent collection in Puerto Rico. Michelle lives in Portland, OR, and her work is represented by Gallery 13 in Minneapolis, MN.
Her current solo exhibition titled Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea, funded by the Stumptown Artist Fellowship Program, is up through October 14 at Stumptown in downtown Portland.
Lane Departure: a virtual, faculty biennial by Clark College art professors
