Flora Ramirez-Bustamante is a Spanish-born artist based in Seattle, Washington. Ramirez-Bustamante makes paintings and small sculptures that integrate personal and cultural symbols in figurative or abstract compositions. Found or rejected objects and random images that are immediate work as tipping points for unexpected creations made with oils, cement, wood, plaster or any other material at hand. Trained as a linguist and having never taken any formal art classes, Ramirez-Bustamante develops a personal approach to work with diverse materials and explores different styles with a primary commitment to spontaneity versus perfection. She received her BA in Spanish Linguistics from the Universidad Autónoma of Madrid, Spain, and her PhD on General Linguistics and Spanish Grammar from the same university years later.
Ramirez- Bustamante has participated in solo and group exhibitions in Seattle, Oregon and Hawaii. She is currently a member of the Seattle Shift Gallery.
I am a Spanish born artist from Madrid. I am a self-taught artist, and a second generation artist in my family.
My artwork is mainly a metaphor of nostalgia for the life and the culture that I left behind, and a conversation with those that are in the distant present. My interest in linguistics, poetry and materials occupies a big part of my artwork as well. I am interested in exploring the materiality of these metaphors utilizing any material that is at my hand.
I have a vivid interest in the beauty of natural irregularity and the unintended asymmetric principles. In my work.
My method of working is expressionistic and materials oriented in that I don’t limit my field of actions. During my studio practice, I embrace imperfection, accidents and the inspiration that this energy transpires.
I am very inspired by found objects and aleatory images. Randomness, lack of predictability, irregularity and rawness are powerful visual triggers.
As a consequence of my metaphoric work the process of de-construction is important to me: objects, writing, materials or human bodies acquire a new form, a new presence, that does not compete with the old form. Gestures are always important. Raw depictions are in the root of my abstraction process.
How to combine opposites and how to challenge the equilibrium of so many ideas coming at the same time are in the root of my inspiration. Ambiguity. Lack of meaning. At the end all makes sense.