A Modern-day Master
BY LAURIE EAGER
Click image to view
Sunlight illuminates the rich colors of the stained glass windows and myriad of objects lining the walls of the historic home that has served as the creative space for over 30 years for local artisan Tony Ramirez. Part home, design studio, antique store and workshop, it showcases a vast collection of beautiful art pieces Ramirez has gathered and created throughout his lifetime.
Mr. Ramirez has been called a “treasure in our community.” He has an innate sense of design and an incredible attention to detail, which are evident in all his work. Aside from a few drawing and painting classes at Delta College, he has very little formal art training, and yet he embodies the master craftsmanship of an old-world artist. He was born in a room over his grandfather’s bar in Isleton, and moved to Stockton as a young boy. Raised with four siblings by his single mother, there was no money for art lessons, so Tony helped clean the studio of a local teacher in exchange for instruction and art supplies. He has always appreciated craftsmanship in many forms, and often rescued things others discarded, fixed them up and created something worth keeping.
This gifted artist’s skills run the gamut from sculpture, metalwork, and crafting custom light fixtures, to the renovation and restoration of cherished heirlooms, painting, drawing, furniture design, printmaking and stained glass. In fact, there are very few media that Tony has not used. He is often commissioned to create one-of-a-kind pieces for spectacular homes and businesses. In addition, he has crafted sets for the Stockton Civic Theater, sculpted figures for exhibits at the Haggin Museum, and fashioned the stained glass lobby of the Bank of the West on Pershing Avenue.
Tony began his professional career designing unique pieces for a large furniture company, which produced hundreds of his designs. He began working in stained glass in the 1970s, and to date, he has created over 5000 stained glass windows.
His favorite project is an elaborate, 20-foot stained glass mural commissioned by Dino & Joan Cortopassi for their Tuscan-inspired home, Capecchio. The piece took the better part of a year to evolve from design concept to finished product. It depicts the wildlife native to their property and is, in Joan’s words, “glorious.” The projects Ramirez has completed for her family are as varied as his abilities. Of special importance to her is the light fixture which hangs over her kitchen table, inscribed “a tavola non si invecchia,” translated, “at the table we don’t grow old.”
The limitless talents of Tony Ramirez certainly show no sign of aging, either.
Mr. Ramirez has been called a “treasure in our community.” He has an innate sense of design and an incredible attention to detail, which are evident in all his work. Aside from a few drawing and painting classes at Delta College, he has very little formal art training, and yet he embodies the master craftsmanship of an old-world artist. He was born in a room over his grandfather’s bar in Isleton, and moved to Stockton as a young boy. Raised with four siblings by his single mother, there was no money for art lessons, so Tony helped clean the studio of a local teacher in exchange for instruction and art supplies. He has always appreciated craftsmanship in many forms, and often rescued things others discarded, fixed them up and created something worth keeping.
This gifted artist’s skills run the gamut from sculpture, metalwork, and crafting custom light fixtures, to the renovation and restoration of cherished heirlooms, painting, drawing, furniture design, printmaking and stained glass. In fact, there are very few media that Tony has not used. He is often commissioned to create one-of-a-kind pieces for spectacular homes and businesses. In addition, he has crafted sets for the Stockton Civic Theater, sculpted figures for exhibits at the Haggin Museum, and fashioned the stained glass lobby of the Bank of the West on Pershing Avenue.
Tony began his professional career designing unique pieces for a large furniture company, which produced hundreds of his designs. He began working in stained glass in the 1970s, and to date, he has created over 5000 stained glass windows.
His favorite project is an elaborate, 20-foot stained glass mural commissioned by Dino & Joan Cortopassi for their Tuscan-inspired home, Capecchio. The piece took the better part of a year to evolve from design concept to finished product. It depicts the wildlife native to their property and is, in Joan’s words, “glorious.” The projects Ramirez has completed for her family are as varied as his abilities. Of special importance to her is the light fixture which hangs over her kitchen table, inscribed “a tavola non si invecchia,” translated, “at the table we don’t grow old.”
The limitless talents of Tony Ramirez certainly show no sign of aging, either.