BYRON RAMOS – PROVO, UT
“Hope Is Found”
Onyx and wood on steel base
66” X 32” X 8”
$30,000
Everyone has had that moment where they have had to dig deep and just find it. I had moments in the Army when I was literally drowning. My body stopped functioning; I was slipping under the ocean waves into the deep. The only thing I could do was hope – hope that a fellow soldier would somehow find me and fish me out. Everyone has had this universal experience: A human experience, to find hope. The story of “Finding Hope” is also something many who have voyaged across the sea have experienced. On the sea, there are many stories, forgotten and forever remembered, of immigration, cowardice, victory, tragedy, heroism. But a common factor that unites all these disparate stories is hope: People voyaging across an uncaring sea with their human hopes to start new lives across the sea. This sculpture, made of found materials – forgotten materials from an abandoned mine, foundry, and train depot – reminds us of the moments we have had to dig deep and find hope.
Meet the Artist
A first-generation Mexican/Guatemalan American, Byron Ramos joined the Army before he became an artist. He was recruited into the Special Forces, into a new type of unit designed to be dropped behind enemy lines and establish bases of operation that would not be resupplied. The elevated brotherhood, standards, ethics, and training of this unit would go on to shape much of his views on life, art, religion, and philosophy. Byron started his artistic journey while in the Special Forces, taking photos as a hobby. His expressiveness as an artist grew when he began experimenting with creating Latino art by meshing urban photography with Latin color styles into a form he calls “Neo-Urban Photography.” However, he found a special affinity for merging the idea of stone with the sea. While he is still a photographer, instead of the rifle it is now the hammer and chisel that he wields.
