My name is Amelia Plata Ramos. I am an multimedia artist and arts educator and hold a California single-subject credential and a bachelor’s in fine arts with a concentration in drawing & painting from CSULB.
TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
In addition to my education in art and teaching methods, parenting 5 children – now adults – has informed my understanding of child development, adolescence, and the importance of providing people a space where they can engage in creative play.
As an art educator, I am convinced that all students are creative beings who need opportunities for self-expression and creative play guided by the fundamentals of art which can give them the language to analyze, process and discuss what they learn. By providing a supportive learning environment, I hope to give students the space to feel free to explore and discover their gifts. I seek to enlighten my students’ minds through classic and modern art forms and to use that knowledge to carve out their own voice and artistic style and to realize that art process is invaluable to the product.
ARTIST STATEMENT
John Singer Sargent’s works have been an inspiration because of his sensitivity to light, shadow, color, and the simplicity of his compositions capture the essence of what the process of painting is for me. I am interested in light as a metaphor for hope amid despair. I was taught and influenced by artists who drew inspiration from artists such as El Greco, Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Monet and Thiebaud among many others, and their guidance shaped the way I learned to manipulate mediums to capture subjects and objects as they were revealed by the light surrounding them. I hope to continue learning and developing this process as well as other ways of art expression.
Light has become a constant theme in my experience as an artist and as a human being, and I intend to explore how it shows us beauty and exposes the darker side of life. I hope to create pieces that invite the viewer to a dialogue that explores what light conveys both as a technique and as a narrative. In my own life journey, light has shaped me in its presence and absence. I consider myself lucky to have learned so much as an art student before life took me on a long and deep path in life, and I intend to use that knowledge as a theme to express how I perceive the world. I also consider myself lucky for having had those experiences over the past twenty-five years, as they will inform and shape my art as continue to grow as an artist.
EDUCATION
My education is vast and has focused primarily on visual arts and art education. As a life-long learner, this list is continuously changing and growing to broaden my knowledge and understanding of my subject matter. Most foundational courses were taken at LBCC, where the journey began. This is a list of the courses I have taken so far:
Art Education : Art Disciplines Through New Technology; Collaborative Partnerships and Strategies for Teaching all Students in Secondary Schools; Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment and Affirming Learning Environments; Curriculum & Methods in Teaching Art; Early & Late Adolescent Development and Learning: A Cross-Cultural Perspective; Health Science for Secondary Students; Intro to Teaching Art; Reading & Writing in Secondary Schools; United States Secondary Schools: Intercultural Education; Student Teaching Practice, Middle School Art focus, LBUSD.
Studio Art : Color Theory & Composition; Two-Dimensional Design; Three-Dimensional Design; Graphic Design; Printmaking – Etching; Lettering – Typography; Field Studies in Art; Mural Painting; Foundation, Intermediate & Advanced Drawing; Foundation, Intermediate & Advanced Life Drawing; Foundation & Intermediate Painting; Foundation, Intermediate & Advanced Life Painting; Concentrated Studies in Life Painting; Foundation; Ceramics I.
Art History : Foundation Art History I, II & III; Impressionism to Post-Impressionism; Cross Cultural Visual Literacy; Pre-Columbian Mexican Art.
