Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Larissa Ramey. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Larissa, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?
A quote from Ella Fitzgerald that has spoken to me lately… “Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there’s love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.”
As an artist, you go through stages, the ebb and flow of creating, thinking, feeling, imposter syndrome, and even spouts of not doing a thing for a while. Yet, I have been grateful enough to realize that I have always chosen to come back to myself and my lived practice. My family and chosen community have given me the support that has guided me to continue to pursue a socio-artistic practice. I have always loved researching, collaborating, fashion, archives, reading, and working with and for the BIPOC community. These lived experiences, my intentions, and consistency are what make the work possible. My purpose is to create, and active participation in making something is what fuels me every day.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I am creating work that challenges and expands the roles of the black archive, fashion, collaboration, family, and performance. Documenting and interpreting blackness and archival methods through interdisciplinary practice, installations, and art facilitation has allowed me to cultivate a visual language through my lived experiences by utilizing lens-based media, curation, black culture, publications, teaching, and workshops.
To be an active participant, I created STOOP TALK and wearable (we are able) archive to make more space for black culture to be fluid and promoted through clothing and collaborative art making. I am grateful to share that STOOP TALK is in its thirteenth iteration. In my practice, I partner with the BIPOC community of Northwest Arkansas often, and to do so, I transform art and educational tools as resources to decolonize and intentionally invest in community-led and driven art-centered spaces. This has helped me to promote skill sharing, funding, representation, and discourse from my practice into my community.
My practice is rooted in making space for myself and others to continue to be in better conversation, become active participants, and question how we/me can be in companionship and challenge art, enabling it to speak, fuel us, and facilitate a legacy that is created for and by us.
The practice will always be ongoing. I have coined it as the footnotes: a love practice. This phrase is the title of my graduate thesis work, and I will be a 2024 Master of Fine Arts very soon, which is very exciting!
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Three impactful skills that I feel have stayed with me are my love of reading & researching, intentionally finding community and spaces where I and my artistic practice are supported, can expand, and be intentional, and the qualities of hard work and kindness that come from my parents’ teachings.
My advice is to do you truly. Not everything, everyone is meant to be a constant. I’ve learned so much through asking for help and focusing on my goals and artistic practice this past year that it’s fueling such a great start to 2024 for me. Plus, it never hurts to take time for gratitude and make your dreams a reality by doing what you need/want.
As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
Book Recs! Sorry/ Not Sorry. I can never pick just one…
1. This is Not Fashion Streetwear Past, Present and Future
By King Adz & Wilma Stone
2. Black Archives: A Photographic Celebration of Black Life
By Renata Cherlise
3. Ordinary Notes
By Christina Sharpe
Contact Info:
- Website: https://larissaramey.visura.co/
- Instagram: @larissa.ramey
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/larissa-ramey-17686118a
Image Credits
Artworks & Image Credits to Larissa Ramey
