Today we’d like to introduce you to Jose Vazques Ramirez.
Hi Jose, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
I came to Texas as a child immigrant from Queretaro, Mexico, but I was raised in East Texas for the majority of my life. I’ve struggled quite a bit with fulfilling a self-inflicted need to fit into both my Mexican and American identities. Luckily in some aspects, I’ve retained the best of both worlds. With the privilege of being raised in the US, I’ve been granted educational, domestic, and financial opportunities that my family would not have been able to attain if they had stayed in the pueblito we moved away from. Having grown up in a low-income Mexican household, my free time was often spent working. This instilled a strong work ethic but also a desire to build generational wealth for my family and recognition for people like me. I’ve been able to combine these opportunities and my work ethic into a successful emerging career as an artist. I now exhibit my work in galleries and have been blessed to have the work resonate with so many people.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Definitely not. It would be weird if it was. We grew up low-income, living with cockroaches, we had a constant fear of ICE and racists, and to top it off my mother died when I was only in kindergarten. Definitely not an easy environment to set someone up for success. Things got better after I was able to apply to be a DACA student. However, I had to pay for most of the college out of pocket, given that as a non-citizen, I can’t apply for federal loans or grants. Even my status as a Dreamer continues to be up for scrutiny and debate. It takes a toll on your mental health having to live with the constant fear of having your status revoked and your life completely shattered. My identity has become overly politicized and in doing so, dehumanized. Luckily, I’ve always had art, friends, and my family so even with all those obstacles, I’ll never be alone in the fight.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m a studio artist who focuses on depicting the anxieties, achievements, and mundanities of living between the realms of citizenship and immigration. I’d like to upset the current status quo of what we see in the gallery space by focusing mainly on the brown body. I do this through drawing, painting, sculpture, and installation with an interactive/performative approach. I’m currently known for letting viewers activate the pieces by revealing paintings hidden underneath a layer of concrete. This helps build a much more effective and lasting connection between the piece and the audience. I can’t force people to sympathize with these real humanitarian issues, but I can invite them to pay attention and participate in the conversation surrounding them. In doing so hopefully, a chain reaction will initiate true change and understanding. It’s become recently apparent that what sets me apart is my ability to experiment and be free from the constraints of attachment to the paintings. I don’t care if the paintings get ruined from the concrete, so long as the image is still visible and the message is clear, then to me, it’s a success.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
My long-term goal has always been to become a professor but I don’t see that happening right away. Now that I’ve graduated from UNT, I have much more freedom to do what I want and the knowledge to make it happen. I’ll continue to exhibit my work in more galleries across DFW but am planning to also expand across all of Texas. As of now with my DACA status, I can’t easily travel outside the US, but I plan to travel within the US. I’d like to hear and write about the stories of immigrants outside of Texas. The culture is so different within each state and by default so is the immigrant community. There are different perspectives and stories surrounding immigration and I’d like to learn about them. I hope to let my inspiration grow and in doing so evolve my artistic practice. Most people are fine with being comfortable but I’ve come to welcome change and hope to have much more eye-opening experiences in my future as an artist.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @artbyjozie
Image Credits
Marcos Rangel
