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Welcome to my 22nd year of producing Smarty Cartoons. I've had the great honor of meeting great students, teachers, artists, photographers, models, actors, and actresses along the way. Every positive influence has contributed to making my business stand on a strong foundation and continue to express my talent through the power of the pen and paint. I am proud to be a Latino talent that has made a mark here in south Texas and has established clients as far as Japan, California, Kentucky, Michigan and other great areas of the planet. Smarty Cartoons is not limited to Texas so I'm available for booking at any time of the year. My work continues to keep me busy and I'm constantly booked which is great. Feel free to contact my home office for availability for your next project or business need. A huge thank you goes to all of my clients that have brought their business to Smarty Cartoons.
- Seize the day with laughter! Ramon Ramirez Jr.
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I am currently in my 17th year of teaching Art at the high school level. I recently was humbled with the award and honor of “Teacher of the Year” for my high school campus for '06-'07. I credit all who have influenced my teaching from my colleagues, my fellow art teachers, my crazy students, family, friends and my most powerful force behind me-my beautiful wife Debra. A lot of people don't know that Debra does most of my local photography. She's a great photographer and powerful element to my success. Her and I are featured on our new logo and some of the shirts that our models wear. My strength comes from God, and I welcome any challenge that comes my way. For any of you out there that are struggling with something in life, place God first in your life and everything will fall into place. Smarty Cartoons sets its foundation on victory and is here to produce the best art product for you or your business. To those that have dreams-don't ever give up! Don't wait for things to happen, make things happen! Life is too short to take things sitting down. Celebrate life, celebrate love, and celebrate laughter! You only have one life to live, so make sure it's as colorful as a cartoon and place God first in your life…it makes a HUGE difference!
My passion for life is transferred to my art. I put a lot of heart into my work. My current projects include the “Fairy” series which takes my work into a whole new direction and features some of our latest Smarty models. I have also begun the initial work for “Teacher Toons”. This is a project that has been in the works since 1997 and currently the artwork has been refined and polished to its top form and humor. I will be sharing a small preview with my readers very soon. Stay tuned for a preview of my “Angel” series. I am already working on that as one of my 2008 projects to be featured here.
A huge thanks to Debra, my wife, who is patient with my late working hours and my crazy cartoons. Thank you to all the fans for your email and to the models featured throughout my art. The models by the way are a continued tradition of art that I consider a great part of portrait studies and caricature references. In memory of my friend and model Gina who died at a young age, I continue the tradition of combining modeling talent and cartooning talent as a formula for my art and cartooning creativity. She was also an artist and I happen to take her last photos of her young life on this earth. She is kept eternally young in an oil painting portrait I made of her and that was given to her mother years later as a gift of our artistic friendship. I was told by her mother that “it was as if you brought her back to life”. While I truly wish that were true, in the artistic sense, a painting can be a powerful creative force if you put a lot of heart into every brush stroke. To this very day every thing I create has a lot of heart in it. That loss in my life taught me that every day is a gift from God. I cherish life with every breath I take and every creative force within me.
Thanks to all who have supported my work especially my sisters and parents who got me started with jumbo crayons and great library books! I'd like to thank also the many schools that have invited me to their campuses for public speaking as well as other organizations in the local community that have extended an invitation to Smarty Cartoons. Thank you to all the bloggers for the link to my site and to all the fans that still remember when Smarty Cartoons made the editorial pages a hot item. A huge thanks to my friends that have been victims of my caricature talent and of my humor at work. Thank you for sharing the laughs and for inspiring my work as a cartoonist and teacher.
Someone once mentioned my work as “The Power of the Pen!” and I continue to live up to that name because I believe in my work and put a lot of heart into it. Despite the criticism my work has generated in the political arena, I am still standing at the end of it all. What people forgot was that this is the “home of the brave” and the brave never stand down. Some may use a sword but the pen is always mightier! To those facing any challenge in life, wear the Armor of God and stand for what you believe in. I'd like to dedicate this website to the friends that have contributed to my work. To those that are no longer with us I will hold their memory dearly in my heart. Their contributions to my creativity lives on in my work. With God's blessing, here is to another 22 years of Smarty Cartoons! Let the creativity continue!
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