Local politics, Chicano culture, murals, fatherhood and education are a few of the many influential factors driving Jose Ramirez's boldly colorful figurative painting. Ramirez, who was born in Los Angeles and received a BFA and MFA in art from the University of California at Berkeley, paints scenes that are filled with joy and light and which celebrate the sustenance of family life. Their saturated colors and patterned compositions recall that of stained glass. With titles like "Father and Child," "Sacred Children" and "Sacred Family," loving and harmonious familial images abound. The calm, even beatific expressions on his subjects' faces suggest that the light that seems to emanate from Ramirez's paintings can also be seen as spiritual in nature. Yet Ramirez's works are not uncomplicated in their portrait of contemporary life and private inner journeys. Escape (2000), for example, depicts a solitary man whose wrists are in chains, standing before a row of prison bars that appear to have been mysteriously pulled apart. Through it all, Ramirez's driving force is a love of painting and a desire to instill pride in oneself and one's culture.