Wayne Ramirez,
Artist

Wayne Ramirez,
Artist

It was in 1961, I was only 20 years old and had just earned my degree in Fine Art from Inter-American University. I was also playing semi pro baseball in Puerto Rico and I had a choice to make: either accept a scholarship from the University of Pennsylvania and the Academy of Fine Arts, Master of Fine Arts program, or pursue a possible career in baseball. I hung up my cleats (it was doubtful that the New York Yankees would offer me a contract) and over the following 56 years my professional career resembled a grandmother's quilt, a patchwork of jobs, yet all held together with stitch work and threads of ART. I worked as an Art Therapist (founder and first president of the first Art Therapy Association in America – the Wisconsin Art Therapy Association, July 1969 and I was among the first pioneers of the American Art Therapy Association). I earned my second graduate degree in 1971, Master of Science in Rehabilitation Counseling from the University of Wisconsin.  There and at Mount Mary College (now Mount Mary University) I taught the first accredited Art Therapy courses offered in Wisconsin. My degrees in Art and Counseling led me to the unexpected professional opportunities:

Director of the Art Therapy Program at the Milwaukee Psychiatric Hospital, a College Counselor at the University of Wisconsin, The Pennsylvania State Director for the Arts in Special Education Program (where my wife, MaryAnn and I had the opportunity to work directly with the Kennedy's on "The Very Special Arts Festival"). Furthermore, MaryAnn and I worked in education for over 30 years in the Caribbean. There I was: headmaster of a college prep school in Puerto Rico and in the U.S. Virgin Islands, a principal of a college prep school, a specialist for the Arts in Special Education and Arts Mobile Program, a Special Education Coordinator and the Assistant Director of Special Education for the U.S. Virgin Islands. I am currently retired living in Arkansas and Florida.  I write federal grants and over my professional career I was able to obtain over $10 million of funding for various programs. The professional positions I have held were diverse yet they enabled me to support and initiate art programs. From early on I realized that the arts were not only central to education and mental health, but also to life itself. Art, the act of creating is a reminder that there is a creator. Now that I am in the sunset years of my life, I have had the opportunity to return full-time to my passion of painting. I hope that you enjoy these examples of my work. Postscript: two years ago a friend invited me to play baseball in a senior softball league in Florida. I found my old cleats and joined the team for practice where I promptly tore my achilles heel, confirmation that painting was the right choice. Regarding the fate of my old cleats my neighbor's dog now has something to chew on.

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