While still a teenager and young adult, Fernando Ramirez was a popular artist at Gallery 37, Chicago’s celebrated youth arts program. Here he completed commissioned art projects for Chicago luminaries and for visiting dignitaries from around the world, and he painted several bovine subjects during the famous Cows on Parade. A decade later, as a Project Onward artist, Fernando continues to paint colorful scenes of Chicago’s famous locales, enjoys a unique niche in painting three-dimensional objects, and is popular for his commissioned portraits of people and their pets. “My work is a more colorful view of reality,” he says. “I try to include all the colors, so one is bound to have their favorite somewhere. I like working at Project Onward because I get to practice and learn from other artists.” Fernando Ramirez joined Project Onward in 2006 and lives in the Back of the Yards neighborhood of Chicago.