An Inspired Chat with Dina Perlasca of El Paso TX area

We’re looking forward to introducing you to Dina Perlasca. Check out our conversation below.

Hi Dina, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to share your story, experiences and insights with our readers. Let’s jump right in with an interesting one: What is something outside of work that is bringing you joy lately?
Something outside of work that always brings me joy is experiencing nature. It’s a need I have had since I was young.
It’s something that has always given me peace and serenity, and in some instances, the landscapes and plants and animals in my hiking experiences feed into my creative practice.
Here in the Chihuahuan Desert, there are certain days that are perfect for enjoying nature, overcast days, or days in the spring or fall are beautiful. During the summer, it is hard to enjoy the desert as it is really hot, and the landscape is hard to appreciate since the sun bleaches out all color and almost turns the horizon into a mirage. Because days to enjoy nature here in El Paso are sporadic, whenever the weather is perfect, it feels like a very special opportunity and a gift.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I am a Mexican American artist from the Paso del Norte Region. I grew up on the Border of Mexico and the U.S. in El Paso, TX, and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. I live in El Paso with my three children. And I am an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at El Paso, teaching ceramics and design.

I earned my BFA in Ceramics at the University of Texas at El Paso and my MFA in Mixed Media Media Arts at New Mexico State University. I works in photography, ceramics, and domestic materials, and my Mexican upbringing and borderland cultures inform my work.

I serves on the Artaxis board as Vice President. I am a Color Network Mentor and is the recipient of the Clay- Houston’s Texas BIPOC Emerging Artist award. Recent exhibitions include the Roswell. Museum, the Juarez Museum, and Silver City’s Clay-Fest, where she won second place.

I am driven to create art that helps me connect with reality. I generate personal idols, sculptural installations, and artifacts to help me navigate the complexities of life, past, present, and future. My art grounds me and reflects the psychologically rich narratives of my history, my dreams, and my desires.

My work is for me and my family, for future generations, and those who find comfort in the familial aspects of my artworks. My Mexican upbringing greatly inspires my practice, which is also influenced by the folk art of central Mexico, where my grandparents settled, and the domestic aesthetics and intimate interior spaces of Fronterizo people living in both Mexico and the United States.

Generated from the experiences of growing up on the border, my work possesses encoded knowledge that creates an in-between, surreal environment. It is its own culture. In my installations, ceramic idols and characters inhabit charged domestic spaces that depict my personal narratives through sculptural furniture, majolica wall plates, terracotta tiles, tapestries, wall drawings, and mixed media desert plants. Together, these elements create familiar, uncanny spaces where the viewer can observe the psychological connections between the disparate yet proximal parts of the artworks.

Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
I was always a wild child. I deeply enjoyed nature, logic, and being connected to my humanity and spiritual connection with the natural world. I was born an artist, and I was always translating the world and recreating it through drawings, paintings, little sculptures, poems, and songs.

I was born with very different beliefs and values from the rest of my very traditional Mexican family.

As a result, I developed an alter ego to satisfy what my family desired for me, and what they expected of me as a Mexican young woman.

As an adult, I am constantly going back to the beginning of my life and tapping into that wild child I was and still am. As an adult, I celebrate the person that I was born into and continue to embrace the universal truth, values, and beliefs I was born with.

If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
If I could say one kind thing to my younger self, it would be:
You are wonderful the way you are. The world does not need to approve of or understand who you are. You dont need to constantly explain your values or beliefs to people who want you to be someone else.

Focus on your goals and dreams, and let people be who they are; you do not need to please anyone other than yourself.

Always speak your truth and act your truth.

Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
Experiencing life is the most important thing for me.
Being true to myself, enjoying nature, helping and spending time with loved ones, and having a creative practice. And keeping a beautiful home to come back to every day.

Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. If you knew you had 10 years left, what would you stop doing immediately?
I would probably stop worrying about the little things and start to enjoy life more. I would probably stop doing things I dont want to and saying yes to commitments just to be nice or socially accepted.

Contact Info:

• Website: [email protected]
• Instagram: @dinaperlasca