My shoulder hurts

Hi, I'm Michele Ramirez and I am a painter. Why do I feel like I should stand up in front of a room full of strangers and announce that? Because painting is so passe, and has been since the late 1960's. At least that's what I hear in passing, so forty + years later, I'm still at it, stubborn girl that I am.

I live for painting. I love the smell, the sensation of a brush gliding over the smoothness of a panel or stuttering over canvas. I love the turp high I get when locked away in my studio. I love a beautiful composition--hell, I even love my failures. If I can learn from my failures, well, then it's not entirely a wasted effort.

That's part of my mini-manifesto. I'll add more rants as I go on, and time permits.

I love it.