“The majestic mountaintop, brilliant with snow, is you yourself when you contemplate it,” says artist Troy Ramos, directly quoting one of his favorite writings by the buddhist guru Thich That Hanh. He continues, “Its existence depends on your awareness. When you close your eyes, as long as you’re mind is present, the mountain is there. Sitting in meditation, with several sense-windows closed, you feel the presence of the whole universe. Why? Because the mind is there. If your eyes are closed, it is so that you can see better. The sights and sounds of the world are not your enemies. Your enemy is forgetfulness, the absence of mindfulness.”

On the eve of his new project titled the “Roadkill Project”, artist Troy Ramos offers this profound quote of Thich Nha Hanh as he reflects on the current Covid pandemic and how it relates not just to his artistic undertaking on the road, but to how we all might find a path back or forward to a world we can feel comfortable with and happy in. “One of the reasons I like to think about this particular Hanh quote is that, when he talks about how the mountain is still there whether we’re aware of it or not, it applies in the current pandemic situation because it makes me realize that whichever way of life we desire, whichever way of life we think we need, that life is always there, too. Yes there might be adjustments that have to be made now. But it’s there. It’s always there. And so I think doing this Roadkill Project, at least in significant part, has to do with that idea; it’s an attempt to remind people that, using my life, which consists of a devotion to artistic projects and platforms, podcasting, connecting with the earth and with people and with traveling and exploration, all that stuff is still there. It never went away. You just have to decide what you want to do.”

Ramos is an artist based in Michigan and has spent many years living around the US and abroad. He said traveling was an important part of this project because putting yourself in different situations creates different results for projects and podcast ideas. The basic idea of his project is to travel to familiar and unfamiliar cities over a period of time in order to produce art, music and podcast episodes which emanate from those experiences and states of mind.

“Where are you physically place yourself has a huge impact on the things you create. To take another Hanh quote: It is of no use to sit in a peaceful forest when your mind is lost in the city,’” says Ramos. “Inserting yourself into different physical spaces creates the opportunity for different types of inspiration, different perspectives and different connections which all go into creating the work and affecting it at the same time.”

For Ramos there are three essential pillars to his work and, therefore, this project: creating art works, creating music and doing live podcasts. He’s an award-winning artist who has received numerous grants and commissions over the last several years. Some of his most notable awards include grants from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs and a large ArtPrize award which was essentially a commission for a new sound and light installation at ArtPrize 2018 titled Sound Space.

“Those two particular awards have been pretty significant in terms of being able to have the support needed to create works and move further down this creative path,” says Ramos. “The ArtPrize award is really sort of put me on the map in terms of being connected to different artistic institutions and future financial support. And the MCACA award, which happened just this year, ended up being significant in terms of artistic content because it allowed me the chance to fuse together a lot of different elements I have been working on over the years. So this new direction that I’m taking, particularly the combination of paintings and light design together on canvas, has really pushed my work forward.”

What most people don’t know about Ramos’s work is that the artistic world actually came after a very formal training in sound design and music composition.He studied music composition at Western Michigan University and then went on to earn an MA in Music Composition from the University of York and England in 2008. “ Even though my musical studies were invaluable and I thoroughly enjoyed the years I spent absorbed and sound, sometimes we do things that end up not being the actual path we’re supposed to be on. It was quite an easy transition comfortable transition to the art world. Once I had moved into artistic spaces it actually starting to dawn on me that I had been doing artistic things my whole life. It brought back memories of shooting countless hours of video when I was young. There was no direction there. But the interest in creating VisualWorks was clearly there. So, in a way, all of my work is connected and related. After all, we’re each of us really just an aggregate of all our days anyway, aren’t we?,” Ramos said.”

While studying music his main instrument was piano. So a lot of the sound works, even if approached from a very artistic and conceptual manner, are heavy with piano sounds. “The piano is still very close to me. I feel the most confident with that instrument, for sure. And so on this Roadkill Project I thought it was a good idea to reconnect with the idea of possibly creating another all piano work. This will be the first one since 2017.” His last or panel album was titled 12 cab stars and, according to Ramos, was his most successful sound project he’s had to date. “It’s hard to define the word success for an artistic project, it’s also subjective. But I really found that I connected with something on that project. And for what it’s worth, I feel like a lot of people who support my work connected with it, as well.”

When Ramos returned to Michigan in 2015 one of the first things he did was start a podcast. His podcast ArtHouse Radio has been on the air for about five years, a show based in the arts but open to discussions or ideas moving in any direction. It’s a weekly show which features Ramos talking about art, music, film, philosophy, or can feature a discussion with other prominent artists or colleagues. He’s had ArtPrize director Kevin Buist on his program, former executive directors of MOCAD in Detroit, nationally recognized comedians and many others. Sometimes, however, it might even be simply a sound art experience. “If you listen to the different areas of ArtHouse radio you’ll hear different attempts at different things. In the beginning I was having interviews and doing strange skits. There were areas where I was recording myself laying in a hammock and listening to the sound of traffic and the wind and wildlife. And other times I’m doing very serious reviews of movies or films that have affected me. In a way it’s almost like a diary of my inner voice, maybe sometimes a discussion with other inner voices,” says Ramos.

“I just crossed the 200 episode mark of ArtHouse Radio and I couldn’t be happier to have experienced that while doing this particular project. One thing that I’ve added to AHR recently is the addition of video. I used to have a segment on ArtHouse Radio called Pop Culture Fridays. Before this pandemic kicked off, I started a video version of that podcast, almost like a spin off. The views were so good for that show that I decided to replicate that idea with ArtHouse Radio. So now people can watch our YouTube channel or listen to the show on any podcasting platform. And all of this is free of course.”

One thing that Ramos is quick to point out, besides his podcast being available to watch or listen for free, is how important it is to support the arts and artists. “If you enjoyed music, movies, podcasts and books during the pandemic, or even if you needed them to get through those tough times, you understand how important the arts are in peoples lives. And I don’t think as a society we’ve valued them, socially, culturally and financially, as much as we should have in the past. If there’s one thing we should take away from this pandemic in regard to the arts, I think it’s that we need to support artists more.”

For the ArtHouse Radio podcast, Ramos set up a Patreon page so that fans could support that podcast, and, essentially, the Roadkill Project, for only $3 a month. Patreon is a platform where creators can set up a page (like Facebook or Instagram) and patrons or supporters can go to that site and join the monthly membership for an amount set up by the creators. “I wanted to set the monthly membership low and I think three dollars is about as low as you can get. So for only $3 a month people can not only know that they’re supporting an artist in his work, but there are also special perks that we attached to that membership. Some of them include discounts off of merchandise we sell, exclusive content like live question and answer session‘s are perhaps even voting rights on podcast topics.”

Under the blanket of what he’s calling the Roadkill Project, Ramos hopes that people will follow his work while it’s happening and after it’s completed. “Marcel Proust once said that we can’t fully understand situations until they’re over. That’s gonna apply to me in regard to this project, as well. But one of the great things that we’re doing by putting things online as we do them is that they’re up there forever. So this is something that people will be able to enjoy for as long as the internet exists.”

To join and support this project you can visit www.patreon.com/arthouseradio, or you can make direct donations at his artist site www.ThisIsWhereYouAre.com or at the arts organization site he founded in 2015 www.ArtHouse43.com

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