Ramon Camarillo was born and raised in Hawaii before making his way to the east coast in 1996, bringing with him his ukulele and his dynamic style of wheel-throwing large vessels, which gained him national recognition in the clay and pottery industry. In Hawaii, his pots had been juried and displayed in several galleries and museums including the Honolulu Contemporary Museum, Premier Galleries of Hawaii, Gallery Maui, Euro-Art Galleries, Ltd., Robert Lyn Nelson Gallery and the University of Hawaii. He won numerous awards including the "Acquisition Award" by the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts; "Contemporary Award" by the Raku Ho’olaule’a at Kualoa Regional Park; the "Frank & Marie Baldwin Memorial Award for Ceramics," and the "Juror’s Award" at the 22nd Annual Easter Art Festival in Honolulu.
Once on the mainland, he soon gained juried acceptance into the prestigious Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, Virginia, where Good Morning America broadcast a live segment of Ramon demonstrating his large throwing technique. His work has been exhibited at Baltimore Clayworks in MD, Smithsonian Institution in D.C. and the Ellipse Arts Gallery in Arlington, VA, to name a few, and both Clay Times and Ceramics Monthly magazines have featured his work. He shares his knowledge and techniques effusively through a wide variety of workshops and demonstrations all over the east coast. He has been guest artist at Rhode Island School of Design’s annual Raku Rhody-O, a 3-day fire-arts festival, as well as at the annual Mid-Atlantic Clay Conference in Front Royal, VA, and the annual week-long raku/pit-fire workshop for the Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts in Beach Haven, NJ. In March/April 2004, Ramon exhibited in NCECA’s (National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts) 4-Star Gallery Invitational , the "Big Show," in Indianapolis, Indiana. And in 2005, he will be the feature artist in the NCECA Pre-Conference hosted by the Clay Guild of the Eastern Shore (Ocean City, MD) which features an extended beach pit-fire workshop, slide lecture and exhibitions of his work.
Ramon has spent the last 27 years developing his skills and refining his techniques in the art of raku and pit-fired vessels. His unique method of throwing a 25-pound bag of clay, in a single wheel session, into a pot that defies the typical limitations of clay in size and thickness is one of Ramon’s trademarks. These forms can sometimes reach as high as 32" and the walls can be as thin as 1/8". It can be quite a surprise to pick up one these beautiful artforms, as they are always surprisingly lightweight. But the challenge for Ramon is not only in the size, but the shape the vessel takes, which is never planned.
"The shape of the pot comes to life during my ‘exchange’ with the clay as I work with it," he explains, "but no size or shape can make the pot special if the finishing touch of the glaze is not a complement to the form."
Ramon uses a variety of slips and glazes as a spontaneous expression of his imagination, which are then fired at low-temperatures (1600-1800°) in a raku kiln until red-hot, then transferred to a bin or ground-pit with combustible material in it, such as paper, leaves, wood or sawdust. Depending on how the fire and smoke interact with the glazes, the spontaneous and unanticipated results create surfaces and textures that are irreproducible and one-of-a-kind.
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