art
layers of circularity.
internal turmoil over
post-consumer materials.
artist’s statement
Working on art is like opening a portal to the present for people in the future.
It’s one of the few ways your focus becomes a physical object.
During that process, your spirit imprints on that object, transferring emotions to everyone who experiences it.
My art is about preserving and sharing the emotions I experience when I am fully present in the moment.
It gives me inner peace even when the world is on fire. Or when everything is going fine but I still don’t feel okay.
I work with reused materials out of practicality and ease in knowing it’s okay if I mess them up.
It’s a sustainable practice that documents the moment materially instead of just intentionally; a crude act of stewardship for the planet.
My artwork represents the part of me that wants to be set free.
It helps me express things I can’t find any words for.
Most of all, it gives me something to believe in.
Art is a way to escape that ends in connection.
I believe in the connection I feel when I experience art and want to help others feel it too.
bob gramatges
sustainable mixed media artist
Born in a Catholic hospital overlooking Biscayne Bay, Bob Gramatges is a first-generation Cuban-American queer artist living in Miami. He works as a strategic marketer and sustainable fashion designer. His artwork is an exploration of the emotions we have no words for. He uses ephemera and post-consumer materials to create timeless art rooted in the present.
El Triste, 18” x 12.5” Mixed Media Drawing. Charcoal, and pastel over a brown grocery bag with a blue acrylic screen print. Miami, Florida, 2024
María Libertad, 18” x 12.5” Mixed Media Portrait Drawing. Charcoal and pastel over brown grocery bag with blue acrylic screen print. Miami, Florida, 2024.
Shake Senora, 24” x 36” Abstract Acrylic Painting. Acrylic paint and metallic furniture paint over second-hand framed art. Miami, Florida, 2023.
María de Pilar, 15.5” x 12” Mixed Media Portrait Drawing. Charcoal and pastel over post-consumer cardboard packaging. Miami, Florida, 2024.
Oz, 16” x 12.5” Mixed Media Portrait Drawing. Charcoal and pastel over post-consumer cardboard packaging. Miami, Florida, 2024.
Ernestino, 18” x 12.5” Mixed Media Portrait Drawing. Charcoal and pastel over brown grocery bag with blue acrylic screen print. Miami, Florida, 2024.
Seville, 10.5” x 8.5” Mixed Media Portrait Drawing. Charcoal and acrylic paint over a page from a Gothic cathedral book. Miami, Florida, 2024.
Squidworth, 18” x 12.5” Mixed Media Portrait Drawing. Charcoal and pastel over brown grocery bag with blue acrylic screen print. Miami, Florida, 2024.
María Merced, 14” x 14” Mixed Media Portrait Drawing. Charcoal and pastel over post-consumer packaging cardboard and page from a vintage world atlas. Miami 2024.
Adobo Still Life, 18” x 24” Charcoal Drawing. Willow and compressed charcoal on white Strathmore stock. Miami, Florida, 2021.
What Makes You Smile 24” x 30” Mixed Media Collage. Screen print over screen printed-Vogue magazine pages in a spray-painted secondhand frame. Miami, Florida 2021.
Hold Tight, 30” x 24” Mixed Media Collage. Vogue Magazine pages, post-consumer seltzer packaging, and brown grocery bags. Miami, Florida 2024.
Plantain Parrot 20” x 16” Mixed Media Collage. Scrap collage from Vogue Magazine pages on a spiral notebook page over cardboard packaging. Miami, Florida 2024.
Stockholm, 13” x 18” Oil Impasto Painting. Oil and impasto on canvas. Miami Beach, Florida, 2014.
hourlong blues
a sustainable mixed-media portrait series representing two periods.
It began with a collection of screen prints on brown paper grocery bags from the winter of 2020. At the time, drawing felt intimidating, but screen printing gave me an outlet to express myself through color.
The blue ink formed abstract patterns against the brown paper, creating pieces I liked but never felt were complete—they were just prints of a neon sign that read “You Are Here”. I chose the photo for aesthetic reasons, but now the words represent the theme of being present.
Shortly after that blue screen printing session, I started taking drawing and portrait painting classes online and then at local art studios.
I've explored portraits with acrylic and ink before. But last fall, I was drawn to the organic, tactile experience of drawing with charcoals and soft pastels.
I first began exploring this type of drawing on pieces of brown cardboard. Then I decided to see how they looked over the blue bag prints, which I had just edited down to a dozen.
What started as an ordinary art exercise became a practice of presence and finding the portrait that wanted to emerge rather than forcing a likeness.
This series bridges two periods with one constant: my desire to be fully present during their creation. Each portrait is completed in a single sitting, typically thirty minutes to an hour, as a spontaneous expression of what I didn’t even realize I was feeling at the time.
I only work on the blue paper bag prints when I want to escape into an intuitive drawing session.
Layering time, emotion, and media transform what once felt like unfinished prints into Hourlong Blues.