About

“As performer, creator and heir to a remarkable heritage, my expression has always come through the arts. Having communicated through movement most of my life, it’s only natural that it show in my works on paper and canvas. Just as dancers communicate by negotiating space, I choreograph with brush, knife and paper to engage you, hoping to move you, bring to mind your own heritage and your joyful memories. Drawing on vivid moments in my dance career, the richness of my Caribbean heritage and my childhood in Bedford Stuyvesant, I have embedded in my memory, vibrant images of rhythm and culture, color and movement.” Ramona expertly works with the paper medium - in her collages; and chine collé used in printmaking - as “it evokes a certain vitality and an element of surprise.” She says, “There is no separation between my passion for dance and heritage and the enthusiasm I have for the work I create on canvas and paper.”

Using her talent as a performing and visual artist, Ramona continues to involve herself in her community. She currently teaches dance workshops at St. Joseph’s College, where she also sits on the Arts Council and she once served as Artist-in-Residence at a Harlem hospice, where she helped support patients and families by creating art projects. She has served as artistic director and sat on the board of several arts organizations in Brooklyn, including SONYA (South of the Navy Yard Artists), Cultural Crossroads, Inc and presently, the Brooklyn Contemporary Chorus. She has won several honors for excellence in art as well as her community work. She was the featured artist for Brooklyn Academy of Music’s DanceAfrica 2010 and for The International African Arts Festival in 20062006. Her art is included in several public and corporate collections including the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, Dunne Development Corporation, Rugged Cross Apartments, Museu Brasileiro da Escultura - MuBE Sao Paolo, Brasil and Pinacoteca de Sao Paulo, Brasil. Ramona maintains a studio in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.

Statement:

Movement is my method. While it is in dance that I found voice, passion, and connection with culture and personal heritage, it is my goal to continue exploring cultural completion. It is in this journey that rhythms emerge, colors vibrate, boundaries are shattered -- and movement, well that’s constant. As in life, discoveries are made, steps taken and connections uncovered, roads traveled and lessons learned, and so it is in my process of making art.

Rhythm drives me. Music accompanies production and allows me to dance into each piece. When my shapes coalesce like dancers on a stage, I continue to choreograph by building formations. Shapes, color and textures react to each other while remaining unique to a larger dance. I coax each piece of paper, each shape, to take on life, to interact with and make viewers want to join in the dance.

Papers become dancers in my hand. I take them and toss them, make them jump, glide them, rip them and create a visual performance. I love working with papers in collage and through chine collé in my printmaking. In chine colle, once the plate has been inked, it becomes a playground or a stage where I let my fingers, scissors and knives get busy.

Dance, proud heritage and growing up in my beloved Brooklyn continue to inspire my work. These are my treasures, my personal collage and what keep my feet, fingers and spirit dancing. I am a “choreographer on canvas.”