InTouch with Southern Kentucky April 2020 | Page 13

Artist Spotlight
CHRISTOPHER HARRIS I CJ
Grethchen Ramsey has an office located at the Carnegie Center.
Ramsey is part of the Carnegie family
BY CHRISTOPHER HARRIS
COMMONWEALTH JOURNAL
G
retchen Ramsey is a
woman of many talents.
“I do almost any type
of art or crafts,” she
said. “I have also had
friends ask me to do their interi-
or decorating. But painting is my
favorite!”
A native of Ferguson, Ramsey has
been into painting for a long time.
It was her grandfather, sign painter
and artist Herbert Ping, who helped
foster an interest in art within her.
He’s not the only familial influ-
ence, however. Ramsey’s brother
Andrew Ping died this January, but
his talents left a big legacy -- in par-
ticular, with Ramsey.
“He was a wonderfully gifted
artist who passed at an early age of
40,” she said. “His death made me
think about life ... and inspired me
M arch 2020
to push forward with my artwork
while given this time on earth.”
Ramsey has seen her share of
the world, certainly. After gradu-
ating from Somerset High School,
she moved to Los Angeles on the
other side of the country and lived
there four years before returning to
Kentucky, in Woodford County. She
stayed there 14 years before coming
back home to downtown Somerset.
But everywhere she’s gone, art
has been a presence in her life.
“Art calms me down helps me es-
cape from everyday life,” she said.
“It’s a passion that I get lost in and I
literally do not realize how quickly
the time goes by as I paint.”
Ramsey paints not only on a
canvas, but also on furniture, some-
thing she likes because it allows her
to “feel like I took something old
and made it new again.”
Today, Ramsey has a home at the
Carnegie Community Arts Center
in downtown Somerset. She has
an office in The Yellow Umbrella,
the unique gift shop there in the
non-profit arts hub, and has work
there available to see around the
Carnegie in different places.
Ramsey said she’s thankful to
have “humbly become a part” of
the Carnegie’s team, and noted that
she’s only one of a number of “in-
credibly talented” residents with art
on display there whom she hopes
the public will come in to see.
“I am still getting used to being
called ‘an artist,’” she said. “Al-
though I have painted and done
various artworks, I suppose I didn’t
have the confidence to call myself
an ‘artist.’ However, my family here
at the Carnegie Community Arts
Center has encouraged and sup-
ported my efforts and I am becom-
ing more settled with the label of
artist. It has a nice ring to it!”
I n T ouch with S outhern K entucky • 13