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ARTIST STATEMENT
Ramona du Houx

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Many Native Americans continue to believe that everything and everyone is connected. It is that interconnectedness that helps to make us whole. Through photography I have found light expresses that reality in unique ways. I try to bring the beauty and mystery of nature to viewers by amplifying this essence. That mystery can be transformational.

The Greek philosopher Heraclitus wrote that you can’t step into the same river, twice. Today, most of us are too busy to contemplate how much nature’s motion surrounds or is within us, always changing. We don’t normally see how interconnected rhythms of nature are a part of us. Nowadays, too many of us tend to take nature’s continual dance of life for granted.

Scientists, innovators, and inventors throughout history took the time to observe nature and her connective rhythms. But now society plugs us into the Internet, and while that can open doors, sometimes too much of being Internet-connected disconnects us from the mysteries of the natural world that are transformational. I want to help show how nature’s interconnectedness can lead us to discoveries about our world and ourselves.

People need to be connected to nature. Running around day-by-day we unplug ourselves from the gifts mother nature inspires. I hope my work re-connects the viewer to the loving peace of being embraced by nature.

Sometimes when people look deeply into these images, they relax and find a tranquil place in the soul, as one would by taking time to be at peace in nature. At other times, the photographs can refresh, excite, and energize one’s soul, as if one were standing by a waterfall. The images have been said to be dreamlike, healing, Zen meditative, and thought provoking.

As I paint with the camera questions arise as more doors of perception begin to open. How far can painting with the camera take the viewer into other realities we normally can’t see with representational photographic works alone? I’d like to find out, join me on my journey.

I love to hear how my work impacts people. Please contact me and share your insights and stories HERE. – Ramona du Houx

ABOUT RAMONA DU HOUX

Ramona du Houx has exhibited internationally. In Japan she is represented by Gallery Storks of Tokyo and Fukurou of Rockland, Maine.

Ramona uses the camera with a painter’s eye. She started her technique in 1979 using movement to create a sense of wonder through colors, textures, memories, and the seasons. Everything within the viewfinder becomes visibly interconnected when objects merge with the motion of the camera as the image, the “lightgraph,” is taken.

Ramona taught photography and industrial design at Collegio San Antonio Abad in Puerto Rico. In 1979 she held her first exhibit in Huntington, Long Island and took her lightgraphs to the Museum of Modern Art, where they were cataloged.

The Zen nature of her work became obvious to Ramona. She continued her humanities studies in Kyoto, Japan while teaching. Her travels in the East led to numerous exhibits in Japan and a lifelong connection with the area.

In England and Ireland, she explored the mythology of the region, while raising three children, ghost writing a novel, and forever taking photographs. After returning to Maine. By 1998 she was given access to a color darkroom at the Lewiston Creative Photographic Art Center to print a backlog of work in exchange for advising the Center’s photography students.

In 2005 Ramona started the news magazine, Maine Insights, which continues to this day.As a writer, she has published a young adult novel, a short story, various news features and articles in newspapers and magazines – like the American Indian Smithsonian – as well as three books of children’s poems. She put together a newspaper for a political organization, and a blog for the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development while writing their newsletter. She’s done public relations for campaigns and recently organized a group of elected officials who are veterans, EOPA, to save America’s public lands. Ramona is the President of the Solon Center for Research and Publishing.

To see more please visit Ramona’s website HERE.