Laying down the future of featherwork
- Ramón began as an experimental painter before turning to feather composition
- He sees feathers as pictorial elements that bestow movement, texture and colour
- His pieces have been exhibited across the USA and in Europe
When he was a schoolboy in his native Cuba, Ramón Gamboa showed a marked artistic talent, filling his schoolbooks with drawings and creative work. His budding talent found fertile ground within his family, in which his father was also an artist, and led him on a creative path. Long a collector of feathers, Ramón became a feather artist after years of experimentation with painting. “I found my true voice and passion in the ancient craft of featherwork,” he says. For Ramón, making a feather mosaic is a process that requires technical skill and is executed through patience and vision. He does not sketch his pieces beforehand, preferring to allow the creative process to flow in an intuitive way. This approach defines Ramón’s process from sourcing to final piece. “I source my feathers from certified websites and trusted suppliers, because one feather leads to another,” he says.
INTERVIEW
My father was a great artist. One day, when we were living in Cuba, he started making a portrait of Hemingway from feathers. I remember sitting next to him for long hours, observing him patiently laying and combining feathers. That memory stayed with me for years.
I like to observe and then elaborate. I remember once seeing an old man holding hands with a little boy, perhaps his grandson. What I perceived went far beyond that. I saw identity, inheritance, pride, culture, hard work, reason and purpose.
On first glance, many feathers may appear to be the same, but each one has its own character. The type of feather I use always depends on the story I am trying to tell in the piece. Feeling the feathers or closely observing them allows me to recognise which one is right.
Although feather art has ancient roots, I aim to expand its possibilities by exploring new compositions, scales and contexts within contemporary art. My vision is to engage in a dialogue with an ancestral technique through a modern lens.
