Anna Ramage

Artist Statement: I began my journey in art with painting and drawing. I have since learned how to use so many more mediums. Along with painting I now share a love to create through ceramics, photography, and even some sculpting. My work is inspired by things in my life that I love, find beautiful, my memories, and experiences. As an artist, I love to grow and learn new techniques and not be tied down to only one way of creating. I now have developed a few bodies of work that I am excited to be able to share.

In my series Growing Hope, I used acrylic paint on canvas to share how hope can overcome negative events people can sometimes go through.  Everyone goes through negative situations or we are affected by undesirable situations our loved ones are going through. However, in these times we can cling to hope and allow ourselves to grow in a positive and beautiful way to overcome the hard times. This is the idea that I wanted to create in my paintings. Each painting gives a dark and muted background to represent the bad event someone might be experiencing. In contrast to the dark the paintings hope is represented through colorful flowers and vines growing and rising from the negative, showing that we can grow and overcome our dark situations. 

In my Comfort in the Cemetery series, I used photography to show cemeteries in a beautiful and inviting way. Sense a young child I have had a love and respect for cemeteries. Eventually in life most people will experience the loss of someone they love. With these losses it can be it might be easier to see cemeteries as a comforting place where the living can sit and find peace in the memories they have with their beloved that are no longer here. Through this body of work, I want to step away from the superstitious ideas of cemeteries being cold, haunting and a place of death. My hope is that viewers can walk away seeing cemeteries in a more beautiful, comforting and peaceful light happy to be able to share.

There have always been two consistent things that never fail to add value to my life’ children and memories. As a mother my child is a very precious addition to my world. Apart from her, however, children have always been valued by me. I believe they are important to the world because they are the future. Their little eyes see the world with such wonder and innocence, and this is inspiring to me. Memories are a treasure to me as well because it is a way I can look back and remember the life I have lived with those around me. Both children and memories are the motivation behind my “Little Ones” photography series. The idea was to capture, not create, the little moments parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents and other family members find themselves taking in while the little ones live their lives without realizing the memories they are creating. I used black and white for the photos to portray the idea of memory and time gone by. In the past I have always found inspiration for much of my art through my daughter. With this series I was able to continue to use her as well as many of the other children in my life for inspiration as they simply lived their lives around me. I am hoping that my audience will see these photos and think about the treasured memories they might have made as kids without even realizing they were creating something so valuable. I also hope that my viewers who might have children they value in their lives to remember to take in those little moments that create such big memories.