Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery is extremely pleased to announce that Ramana Karkus has been named as the Gallery’s new featured artist and she will now be promoted by the gallery for the next 14 days in the gallery’s Artist Showcase.

Ramana Karkus is a Plano, Texas  based artist.  Ramana creates colorful abstract paintings, which she calls her “Soul Painting Series”.  Ramana was selected as 1 of the top twelve finalists of the gallery’s recent Solo Art Exhibition Series #9. The placement in this competition qualified her abstract paintings to be showcased in this feature.

Ramana’s Artist Showcase feature will be promoted to over 350+ major news outlets, with inclusion on Google News & Bing News. In addition, the gallery will also be featuring and promoting her paintings in the gallery’s various social media networks for further exposure.

Below are Ramana’s Artist Biography, Artist Statement and 5 images that were submitted to this competition.

Artist Biography:

Ramana Karkus studied art at Syracuse University and graduated from Columbia University with a BFA degree. Over the years she has also studied at the Art Students League in New York City and the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts. She later received her M.Ed. in Expressive Arts Therapy from Lesley College and her Ph.D. in Transpersonal Psychology from Columbia Pacific University, an early online degree program.

When she received her BFA degree, she felt she was at a crossroads in her life. She saw herself as either living in an artist’s garret in Greenwich Village and pursuing her art or marrying the man she was then dating and living a more conventional life with marriage, children and all that entailed. She chose to marry and went on to have a long, adventurous marriage, which included two children, four grandchildren, two residences outside of the U.S. (St. Thomas and Mexico) and many experiences that have contributed to who she is today. Now, after the passing of her husband and the independence of her children, she is taking the other path in the original crossroad for her art (minus the garret in Greenwich Village!) She feels that her love of vibrant colors and light has been influenced by living in St. Thomas and Mexico. The deep feelings and emotions present in her paintings have been influenced by motherhood, her work as a therapist and her caregiving of her husband during a prolonged illness. All of these experiences helped to deepen her compassion which she expresses in her art.

Ramana believes that all aspects of an artist are involved in the creative process: mind, emotions, body and spirit. She feels that, as she has grown in various areas of her life, so has her art changed and grown. Her latest body of work, Soul Paintings, reflects her growth in spirituality over the years and her recent feelings of liberation and freedom from some personal responsibilities. After caretaking her husband following a long illness and his passing away, she realized that she was now free to paint without the restrictions of caring for family members. This allowed a new pathway to open up in her life and in her art.

Ramana uses mainly water based materials: watercolor, various inks, watercolor markers with some collage to express her soul’s journey and intentions: the fluidity of change and growth. Her love of color, movement, emotion and balance are hallmarks of her art. Her new feelings of freedom and strength are reflected in two of her recent paintings, Ode To Joy and Power Play, among others. Her desire to connect with people, continued from her many years as a mind, body, spirit therapist, is reflected in her desire to create a beautiful, balanced, harmonious and yet thought-provoking painting. She invites the viewer to interpret his or her own story into each piece to help them along their own spiritual path of discovery. Ramana believes that we are at a pivotal, tipping point in our evolutionary history and that we must upgrade our consciousness as a species if we are to survive. Therefore, she views the arts as an avenue to help with this task. She believes that uplifting art should be placed in all areas of life: clothing, home decor and other useful, everyday objects as well as paintings viewed on walls in homes, galleries and museums. This must be a constant reminder of our urgent need to raise our consciousness to help elevate the planet as a whole.

When Ramana creates her paintings, she feels that she is creating a “world” that is different from the one shown in daily news feeds on television, newspapers and other media. She believes if we can dream and imagine the reality we wish were true, WE CAN CREATE IT! Her decades of spiritual and metaphysical explorations have shown this to be true. She invites other artists and art appreciators alike to join her in this mission. Let us formulate a world that is made up of: love, peace, harmony, beauty, joy, equality, safety and fairness for all, while rejecting the outer world of greed, distrust, imbalance, inequality and fear - the 3rd dimensional world that we have been taught is all there is. She is able to create a sanctuary to temporarily escape the outer world of chaos and disorder. She believes that thought, imagination, intuition and creativity can be used to create a new world, a new reality which we can form with our collective intention. In other words, if we reject the so-called reality and danger that now exist and work to create instead the reality of our dreams, it will in fact become our life! This, she believes, is the only way to survival, sanity and to the original intention for humankind.

Artist Statement:

Ramana has always believed and hoped her spiritual growth would integrate with all other aspects of her life. This was true of her mind, body, spirit therapy practice and is also true of her art. As she has grown spiritually, so has her art changed and matured. As her soul feels more and more free to soar, it seeks materials to help with this process: water based art materials: watercolors, fabric inks, watercolor markers and collage materials. This integration of all parts of her being contributes to the authenticity of her latest body of work, Soul Paintings. With these paintings, she gives voice to her spirit/soul and hopes her art will help others to connect with theirs as well.

Ramana believes that we are at a pivotal time in our evolution and must make the move to a higher consciousness if we are to survive as a species. Her art speaks to this area of our human growth and seeks to inspire others to find their own soul truths to follow as well. In these turbulent times of great change, she seeks to create beauty, harmony, balance and order while also encouraging excitement and new ways of perceiving our lives, our surroundings and our planet.

Creating her art becomes a blessing and a therapy for her as she begins to create the world of her dreams and imagination. A world of beautiful colors, original, sometimes other worldly, inspiring forms and a world that seeks the aforementioned harmony, balance and order. She invites the viewer to bring their own interpretation to each painting, using their imagination, intuition and insight. She loves hearing what a person sees in a painting and often finds new, surprising insights herself on subsequent views. This speaks to the idea that she is truly in “partnership” with her soul as she creates since most of the painting is generated from her own super consciousness. She seeks to leave her ego at the door when she begins a painting.

Ramana believes that all of the arts can be catalysts for change, healing and a way to connect with our higher consciousness. She invites you to join her with your own soul journey of discovery.  Ramana’s website is www.ramanasworld.com