Chance Marshall Ramos has been doing art since like most artists say, they could hold a pencil. Her main inspirations are fantasy themed and she loves to experiment in many different mediums.
More recently she’s turned to art as a way to heal and vent from her many chronic illnesses.
Ramos sufferers from polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), Klippel-Feil syndrome, and small fiber neuropathy. The worst case scenario for Ramos is she could end up full body or partially paralyzed. Ramos was also diagnosed with five different mental illnesses this year.
Her illnesses have been accompanied by shame she’s had to overcome.
“When I was 19 I was in full PCOS which caused my testosterone to flare up, now I know it’s literally my brain unable to produce hormones properly,” she said. “As a result that activated hair follicles in my face which started growing facial hair, for many years, I tried to hide it, I was ashamed of it.”
She remembers how her mother was the first person who made her feel uncomfortable with her own body. “When it started to grow in my mother who used to be a former model- We were waiting for the tram at Disneyland and she goes what is this? Girls don't grow facial hair and ripped it out of my face,” Ramos says.
However, none of this has stopped Ramos from following her passion to create or from being a mother. Ramos started her business May I Art in 2019 and since the beginning of her art business journey, she’s advertised herself as a bearded lady. Ramos was able to take her condition and embrace it and make it a staple of her unique image as an artist. “Hey, have you ever talked to a bearded lady?” is an icebreaker Ramos would use often because it makes people stop and question if what they just heard was correct.
“You don’t even have to pay circus prices, come on in,” Ramos says. She often uses signage with similar phrases to attract customers to her booth at events.
Ramos and her family live in Silver Springs but she can always be found at any art show or event vending her designs in Fallon, Virginia City, Carson City, Sparks, and of course Reno.
Ramos' daughter Persephone (a Covid baby) is an artist who is in training and very much likes to follow in her mom’s footsteps. Ramos purchases yearly sketchbooks and archives them at the end of the year along with hers. Ramos also likes to spread the gift of art to others. If Ramos happens to not like a certain medium like gouache or watercolor, she will give it away. Just like she did recently with some paints to neighborhood kids.
Since the birth of her daughter, Ramos works on her art during nap time. She is dedicated full-time to her art and her daughter as well as maintaining her home. For Ramos taking advantage of every second she isn’t tending to Persephone or the house is important. Since she also has a Patreon she needs to send stuff out every month.
One of Ramo’s staples for vending is these sticker collections which feature different art pieces and themes of bigger art she’s made.
”There are hard days when I can't even hold a pencil, or I can’t look left or right. I have to accept that I'm losing a lot of my independence,” says Ramos. Her Patreon members got her a 20-inch tablet so she wouldn’t have to hunch over and so it makes it easer for her to produce her art. “As my help gets more progressive they wanted me to have access to easier stuff and more mediums,” says Ramos.
As of now Ramos is working on her very own comic and possibly putting it into professional print, while trying to sell more art to be able to fix her AC unit.