Since early childhood I was aware of my love for drawing, but, since I was raised within a family dedicated to commerce I followed their advice and applied to the Accountancy career.
I tried to take a pause from drawing but it didn't work, so, after finishing, I followed my heart and retook study and practice of drawing and painting simultaneously with ceramics.
Tell us more about your background and journey.
I was born in a city on the north coast of Perú, Trujillo, where prehispánic Chavin and Mochica cultures developed. I draw since I can remember, mostly face profiles in early childhood. Drawing has always accompanied me throughout the years of school and university studies. I moved to Lima after finishing high school to study a career in Accountancy and after graduation, I began studying and doing what I really wanted to do for the rest of my life, ceramics, drawing, and painting. I had to do office work but never left art practice.
I quit definitely office job 21 years ago, in order to take care of the health of my son, who was born with congenital heart disease and then diagnosed with autism. Since then, I continue doing
pottery and some sculptures, drawings, and paintings and more recently raiding in photography and digital painting.
Nowadays, as my son Gabriel likes to draw as much as I do, we are beginning to show our artwork together.
When did you decide you wanted to be an artist?
Since early childhood I was aware of my love for drawing, but, since I was raised within a family dedicated to commerce I followed their advice and applied to the Accountancy career.
I tried to take a pause from drawing but it didn't work, so, after finishing, I followed my heart and retook study and practice of drawing and painting simultaneously with ceramics. That was the moment I decided to be an artist.
Is it financially stable career?
Unfortunately, we can not say that it’s a stable career, in my country at least, because it’s kind of difficult to maintain financial sustainability only from artwork, all the time. We have to be creative enough to introduce Art in the different spaces of daily life, in design mostly. Teaching is another source of financial sustainability for artists.
Who is your favorite painter/artist and why?
I can't name only one. History has given us so many good artists. I’ll name some, from my country.
First of all, the great anonymous artists from the ancient Mochica culture (developed between the 2nd and 7th centuries in the current province of Trujillo, perú), who had given us such ancestral legacy, that transcended over the time in their pottery and sculptural ceramics.
They had left us an interesting iconography that was expressed through different artistic representations, such as paintings, carving, ceramics, and sculpture, among others. Their work represented animals in beautiful naturalistic sculptures and drew them in an anthropomorphic form.
Also from my country :
Daniel Hernandez (1856 - 1932), a great academicism.
Sérvulo Gutierrez (1914 - 1961), with original and colorful expressionism.
Fernando de Szyszlo (1925 - 2017), painter and sculptor. His work evokes prehispánic forms.
One of the great contemporary painters I have the pleasure to know is Laara WilliamSen. I love the vibrant colors, rhythm, and fluidity of her work.
What is your inspiration for creating art?
Most of my artwork is inspired by Peruvian ancient prehispánic cultures. The shape of the heart is a recurring theme in my work too. Peruvian ancient cultures left an important legacy for posterity, reaching a very high artistic level. They shaped their beliefs, myths, ceremonies, and scenes of their daily life in naturalistic sculptures.
My ceramic designs have, most of them, a nod to Andean iconography, especially in their forms. I took from and
iconography the shapes of animals, especially birds and fish.
The shape of the heart is present in my designs in honor to my son, but also because to me, the heart not only keeps alive our physical body but our spirit too. It’s tangible and intangible at the same time. The heart is the supreme symbol.
What piece of advice would you like to give to future aspiring artists?
I’d say them to be honest with themselves, to take Art seriously. If they feel Art is the path they want to take, the study, practice, and constancy are necessary to find their own artistic language.
They have to be aware that we artists show our inner self in our work, that being an artist, to me, means being committed to the truth and in a constant search for beauty.
With is your favorite book and why?
I don’t have a favorite book but 19th-century literature is my favorite.
For example, ”Germinal” (Emile Zola) and “Les Miserables” (Victor Hugo) are books that caught me, made me travel to the places where the stories took place, made me feel the atmosphere, the romanticism of the time.
Interviewed by- Yashika Khanna
Bio
Herminia Haro, born in Trujillo, Perú moved to Lima after finishing high school to study Accountancy first, then she focus in ceramics, drawing and painting. She got graduated from Mokichi Okada
Foundation (Ceramics) and Art Museum of Lima (Integral Art Course).
She had participated in several collective ceramic and painting exhibitions from 1998 to 2021.
Collective online exhibitions during pandemic times :
”Seeking the source” (September 2020) presented by Moonspace Art Gallery from Missouri, Tx, USA.
“Tu mundo también es el nuestro” (mayo 2021) presented by Hanak Galeria de Arte Virtual, Lima,
Perú.
Last publication about her work: Vijnanakairali Magazine (September 2020) in the Malayalam language by Pushkin E.H. from Kerala, India.
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