Artist Spotlight: David Ramos

Cuban born jeweler and sculptor David Ramos is one of the featured artists at the Lake Mary Museum’s upcoming Local Artist Exhibit running from July 30 through Sept. 17.
Ramos and his lovely wife Maria and I met at the Museum late last week so they could explain some of the ideas and technical elements of his sculptures. Ramos’ education and training as a 3-D artist afforded him a unique perspective when he became a master jeweler and gemologist over 20 years ago. Decades of experience as a custom jewelry designer reveals itself through his wildly creative and inventive sculptures that incorporate cast bronze, natural elements such as wood and stone, and moving parts to round out their grace.
This year three of his pieces have been selected to represent his work at the Local Artist Exhibit including “The Wasp” (last year’s Best in Show at the Orlando Museum of Art), “The Muse,” and “The Escape.”
 “The Wasp,” a fully articulated, cast bronze sculpture of a larger-than-life insect is breath-taking and balanced on it’s stone and wood pedestal. Each of the bug’s leg segments were first individually carved in clay, cast in bronze and then assembled with pain-staking attention to detail.
 “The Escape,” a sculpture on a stone base is made up of four galloping horses escaping from a farmer’s pasture. “They saw a fence that was broken and they ran,” David laughed as we chatted in the museum’s quaint central gallery. He colored each of the cast bronze animals using a variety of compounds to create different patinas lending each creature their own unique color and personality. The metallurgist in him expertly explained using nitric acid, steel oxide, ferric acid and other elements to tint the steeds their distinctive hues.
David’s largest sculpture on display is “The Muse.” This piece sits on a stone base and incorporates a huge quartz geode. “I wanted to show my roots as a jeweler and gemologist,” he said showing me around the massive five-foot tall sculpture. A rusty-colored geode: broken open and glittering with facets on one side, rounded and rocky on the other, makes a gorgeous base upon which he’s seamlessly affixed sculpted cast bronze roots from which rise stem and branches wind up and around their bedrock. Rising up, up, up, the stalk, we will find an amusing fairy with delicate features and lacy wings as she's lighting down with a single foot onto her elegantly poised pedestal.
 “I put a story and history into the metals,” said Ramos as he talked about meditating while crafting these intricate creations. “I always try to represent something,” he explained.
David went on to note that most of his sculptures have a theme of freedom and breaking loose, a concept inspired by his own story to find freedom in the United States along with wife, Maria.
“I had to make these things because that was the only way to bring my idea to the earth. When you are sure who you are, you put your life into everything around you. When you are serious and self-confident in who you are, you have no choice but to create that vision,” said Ramos.
In a poem he has written about his art and heritage, Ramos began “I was born in Cuba where free expression was suppressed.” Now he has come full circle to say “I live on earth today where the rewards of my efforts are realized, where my ideas dance free in the wind and come through in my work.”
Check out Ramos’ sculptures along with the rest of the Local Artists’ collection at the Lake Mary Museum through Sept. 17. Admission is free and regular museum hours include Tuesdays and Saturdays from 10 to 3 or Wednesdays and Thursdays from 11 to 7.

Jessica Pirani can be reached at JessieBerger@yahoo.com.