Luis Ramirez and Jessica Lah will present their two-person show, A Sense of Place, through May 25 at the Ann Foxworthy Gallery on the Allan Hancock College Santa Maria campus.
Ramirez and Lah met at Long Beach State University, where both were selected to study for one year at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in China. The experience cemented a friendship and launched an artistic conversation that keeps them creatively inspired over time and distance. Both began keeping sketchbooks long ago, a discipline that inspired this collaboration.
Lah is self-described as an “adventure watercolorist,” carrying her small watercolor kit on backpacking treks, climbing adventures, and bicycle tours so she can quickly render in watercolor what most others record with cameras. Around 150 of her small images are matted and displayed in small frames in this gallery show, which is the foundation for larger exhibits of these records of her adventures.
Ramirez’s sketches and paintings analyze the intimate experiences of family within the culture of California’s agricultural community. This body of work explores Latin American laborers in Santa Barbara County, where portable toilets and vehicles are always beside agriculture fields.
For more information, call 922-6966, Ext. 3252.
Arts Briefs is compiled by Arts Editor Shelly Cone. Information should be sent to the Sun via fax, e-mail, or mail.
This article appears in May 17-24, 2012.