A collection of coloured pencil drawings by Los Angeles-based artist Michelle Ramin. Originally from Pennsylvania, Ramin received her BA from Penn State University and her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. Beyond her work as an artist, Michelle has taught drawing and painting, and is currently an Associate Professor of Art and the Director & Curator of the Norco College Art Gallery at Norco College. This particular collection of drawings emerged as a result of “years of digital bombardment” in the form of Zoom calls, mobile news alerts, social media pings, and seemingly endless layers of browser windows:

“I have returned to drawing with coloured pencil, the medium I most associate with analog creation and childhood wonder. Rendering my observed reality in broken yet contained, overlapping boxes has become a form of meditation. Building this visual journal helps me process and analyze what is in front of me, however disjointed it may be. As each saturated rectangle upon rectangle screams for attention with news articles, messages, and to-do lists—showing no clear delineation between physical, digital, and psychological space—this body of work reveals just how completely flooded my brain has become, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. By sketching the virtual world in detail and exploring these compositions through my personal lens of self- portraiture and the everyday, I discover a sense of control and, on the good days, a sense of peace and calm.”

Michelle Ramin shared her work with us via the Submissions section of our site.