Ramona Hotel was born in Dayton Ohio and grew up in California in the 60's, but her southern roots and childhood memories of time spent with her grandmother in in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky have been a strong influence in her life and in her art. Ramona currently resides and makes art deep in the mountains of western North Carolina, up in the hills, out in the sticks, in a place "you can't get to from here". She has done collage and assemblage using found materials for many years, and began her bottle cap constructions in the late 80's. In 2000 she began to make the character pins where the color and logos on the bottle caps often are important to the character and humor of the piece. "I love making the characters and I relate to the making as when creating my own paper dolls as a child, giving them whatever face I wanted and dressing them. I want to make the art wearable, to be displayed and used by the wearer, to be a conversation piece, to be humorous, to help the wearer establish personal identity, and to make a statement." Ramona says.