Today we’d like to introduce you to Ramon Mas.
Hi Ramon, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
My artist journey started when I was a child. Unfortunately, I am a product of divorced parents, and there were a few years that I was separated from my father. And throughout those years, at times, I would receive letters from him accompanied by drawings that he would trace from coloring books and the like. I suppose that it was his way of showing that he was thinking of me… Then one fateful day, a package was delivered and it truly shook me. My father had included a Spider-Man comic book along with his drawings and I became totally mesmerized. The packages continued. Some of them included Batman, Mighty Mouse, Superman, and more. Drawings of Popeye the Sailor, Rocky, and Bullwinkle, and others joining his heartfelt letters. I would be immediately entranced with the stories, awed by the amazing artwork, and found myself exploring the human form as drawn by some of the comic book greats. The pop color used to represent the bombastic energy in each panel blew my 7-year-old brain away! I found myself copying and then creating my own worlds which were influenced by these enthralling books. Then, I began taking my newfound obsession and translating it into my school art assignments. I quickly became the “artistic kid” in class. My artistic prowess continued to be developed throughout my time in school, and I delved deeper into art by studying artistic greats like Michelangelo, Van Gogh, Frida Kahlo, and Roy Lichtenstein. Later, graffiti found its way into my life the summer before I started the Visual Arts Honors Conservatory Program at Miami Date College. I found myself sneaking out of my home to tag, paint characters and create colorful pieces all throughout Miami. These experiences and skills now find their way into my artwork where I manage to fuse these worlds together to create my visual narrative.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Nothing worth doing is easy, and nothing easy is worth doing. So no, this journey has not been a smooth road. But if it was, I wouldn’t appreciate it as much as I do today.
At the end of 2019, I had an amazing mentorship opportunity provided to me by an Internationally renowned, Miami-based artist named LEBO. His push and focus had me looking introspectively and redefining my artistic self. And after that experience, I decided to take art seriously, develop my art style further and share it. Then, when I was finding some momentum, COVID engulfed the world and I quickly had to pivot. I refused to let this global lockdown hold me back from creating and sharing my creations with the public. So, I had to quickly learn how to navigate these new waters and turn to social media in an effort to share my artistic expressions. And during the summer of 2020, I released a very personal art series that became popular with my general audience. I took 31 albums that positively impacted me throughout my life and reworked those album covers in my RUEM Art style. This series’ reception absolved fears and solidified my decision to become a professional artist.
The struggle of breaking out of your shell and combating imposter syndrome is something that I’m sure all of us encounter at least once in our lives. But the strength that all of us have within, allows us to stand up to those fears, to push through, and believe in ourselves. And when an obstacle comes our way, even a life-threatening one, being nimble and pivoting is extremely important. Because without adaptation and evolution, we are left behind in the dust, in obscurity, and living in the “what-ifs”.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I was born and raised in Miami, FL, and my adoration for the arts was instilled at a very early age. I developed an appreciation of diverse genres of music and then explored the worlds of my favorite Art Masters through the family heirloom known as the World Book Encyclopedia and a heavy use of a library card. And as I said before, I immersed myself in the universe of classic comic books, to then corrupting my artistic tastes within the grittiness of modern graffiti. This combination was cultivated within my artistic sensibilities to produce the creative that I am today.
Under my pseudonym RUEM, I use a color palette derived from the Caribbean and the Art Deco period of my native South Florida. I use that to channel great Caribbean painters of the past and fuse the urban environments I experienced throughout life with tropical motifs, personal musical influences, vibrancy, and more. And in order to express my artistic vision, it is common to find the use of spray paint, acrylics, oils, and gold leaf in a RUEM art piece. By choosing to combine these different art mediums in my compositions, I identify myself as a true multi-Media artist.
Something that I am really proud of is this new medium that I am exploring to produce artwork. This new and unusual process in producing my art is something that I call my RUEM Layer Pieces. In these artworks, I paint on several different layers of acrylic where I build up the image to give the viewer a 3D visual effect on a 2D platform. I derived this process from channeling my past experience in graffiti where one would paint from the background forward in layers to create the full piece. This process takes several weeks of completion and it is typical to have 5 – 8 layers of paint and acrylic to create one piece. And each piece can weigh anywhere between 10 to 40 lbs! These artworks have been well received and I look forward to continue to develop them.
How do you define success?
I feel that success is subjective and we can feel success in many different ways. I am successful when I finish an art piece that I have been working on, or when someone purchases an artwork from me or contracts me for a commission piece. I feel success when I get that right color combination or when someone writes a nice comment on something that I shared on social media. When I can pay my mortgage or credit card bill through my art, or when I get that right depiction of a subject matter on a canvas, all of that is success.
Honestly, I try not to focus on any material milestone as “success”, but what I do focus on is evolution. And if I can continue to evolve my art and through it, I would say that is success to me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thisisruem.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisisruem
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thisisruem
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFjgC1PQXXGUpD2JIi5BeSQ
