Michelle Ramin ~ Everything you do is Art

Michelle Ramin

{medium}

I have a background in drawing and painting and tend to go through phases with each. I have been mostly drawing lately with pen and ink and marker. I also just finished a series of pen and ink and watercolor pieces. I do also work in oils and mixed media a lot.

{inspiration}

Mostly my surroundings, especially here in Portland and my hometown of Williamsport in Pennsylvania. Portland has such beautiful architecture and vegetation; I would attribute most of my inspiration lately to those two things. I love looking and deciding with my eye what parts of what I'm looking at I'm going to keep and what parts I'm going to change. Creative license is my favorite part of making art; I can choose just about everything about the piece as its progressing.

{art history}

Since I can remember... as a kid, I would draw with a set of berol color pencils that my Mimi (my grandma) gave me when I was probably 3 or 4. My parents used to buy me paints all of the time too, even oil paint by numbers sometimes. My dad taught me perspective when I was in second grade; I think that's what got me into drawing architecture.

{holiday locale}

I love going everywhere. Traveling is one of my favorite things to do. I love Portland; pretty much everything about it. I love the drive down to San Francisco from here through wine country with the beautiful mountains, farms and wineries. SanFran is so beautiful too! and the Southwest desert... there's something very spiritual about that area of the country. I also can't help but love central Pennsylvania, with its gentle rolling hills and sweet deciduous trees... and lighting bugs! and lighting! I miss those things... In Portland, some of my favorite places to hang out and grab a beer and good food are the Virginia Cafe, the Night Light, East End, and the Basement Pub. I also LOVE going to concerts with my favorite venue probably being the Doug Fir and then maybe Holocene and the Towne Lounge. My favorite restaurant in Portland is Baan Thai up by P.S.U. and my favorite store, besides every thrift store and vintage shop in town, is House of Vintage on Hawthorne.

{domestic locale}

My backyard for sure... I have a beautiful huge garden with everything from tomatoes to rosemary to kiwi. It's one of the most inspiring places in my life. It's also a gathering place for bbqs and we hold backyard drawing sessions there every Tuesday evening.

{inclination}
cheap antique furniture meets friends' artwork (a.k.a. DIY Bohemian maybe?) cozy little rooms filled with lots of natural light and surrounded outside by lots of lush green vegetation... with an awesome backyard!

{demolition}
i wish i had a little more room in my apartment (i share a relatively large one bedroom with my boyfriend joel) with my own studio attached... and depending on my mood, i sometimes want to be closer to the city (we live about 2 and half miles out in se portland)... and sometimes i wish i were a little further away in the country.

{cache}
1. my boyfriend (my favorite personal treasure!)
2. my drum set
3. my great grammy's jewelry box that she willed to me when she passed away
4. drawing paper and micron pens
5. my music collection
6. my cat
7. coffee

{castle in the sky}
so many things! i want to travel the world and photograph then draw/ paint all of it! on a smaller scale, i'd like to in the near future cut back hours at work and work a lot more on my art and music.

{recreation}
this is kind of silly... but i love getting a group of my friends together, driving out to Sauvie Island (about 10 miles north of Portland) and going to the corn maze... we look forward to that every fall. i think i like it so much because it reminds me of growing up next to corn fields in central Pennsylvania.

{available to view or purchase}

Always on my website at www.michelleramin.com and on etsy at www.michelleramin.etsy.com. I usually have at least one show per month going on in the Portland area as well to check out my work in person. If you see a piece you like on my website, you can click on the work and it will take you directly to my etsy site to make a purchase.

{price range}
$25 to $500.

{email inquiries to}

michelleramin@gmail.com