Grace Mikell Ramsey
Grace Mikell Ramsey grew up on a farm in a small southern town in north-central Florida. She studied religion and art at Stetson University and after graduating, moved to New Orleans in the summer of 2007 to teach in the Recovery School District and make art. She received her M.F.A. in Painting from Tulane University in May 2012 and was awarded the Joan Mitchell Foundation MFA Grant Award in June 2012. Her work has been shown at the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans, the University of Alabama at Birmingham Art Gallery and published in Oxford American Magazine, Artvoices Magazine, and Arkansas Life magazine.
Artist's Statement:
"Working loosely from my own experiences, memories, musings, introspections, and fears, my paintings function in a dreamlike narrative space between fantasy and reality. I explore themes of girlhood and womanhood, using elements of ritual, magic and religious iconography to give color and light to what is kept hidden or left unsaid. These are the secrets of an insular world, but if there are mysteries in these scenes, there may also be moments of uncanny familiarity. Though this work arises from my private thoughts, I hope that it opens itself to possibility. The narrative and emotional threads grow richer and more complicated with every viewer who might think, for a moment, I’ve seen or felt or dreamed this before."
Keep oil on canvas 48" x 60" 2011
What Happens After Them oil on wood panel 60" x 72" 2012